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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.

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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: mate · race · bat · straw · rest · cold · root · spring

  1. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  7. Have you found your soul ________________?
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  11. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — what's left
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. bat — the animal
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. race — a contest
  6. root — the cause
  7. mate — a partner
  8. rest — a break
  9. spring — of water
  10. root — of a word
  11. mate — to breed
  12. mate — a friend
  13. cold — not warm
  14. root — of a plant
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. spring — the season
  17. race — the arms race
  18. race — humankind
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. cold — an illness
  22. spring — a coil
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. rest — what's left

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