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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 124 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.

Words on the sheet
468
Word bank
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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: staff · straw · spell · field · rash · cold · kid · bat

  1. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  2. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. Don't do anything ________________.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — a stick
  2. spell — a short time
  3. field — farmland
  4. staff — employees
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. spell — letters
  7. rash — hasty
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. kid — to tease
  11. bat — the animal
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. kid — child
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. rash — a series
  17. staff — employees
  18. field — a subject
  19. cold — an illness
  20. field — for sport
  21. cold — not warm
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. spell — magic
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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