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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 116 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: straw · rock · ground · last · land · wave · cold · kid

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  6. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  7. There's no middle ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. wave — of the sea
  4. kid — to tease
  5. ground — crushed
  6. wave — a sudden rise
  7. ground — a position
  8. cold — not warm
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. kid — child
  11. land — ground
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. cold — an illness
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. rock — a stone
  17. land — a country
  18. rock — to move gently
  19. last — to go on
  20. wave — with your hand
  21. land — to come down
  22. rock — music
  23. ground — the earth
  24. last — finally

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com