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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: saw · toast · cold · clip · fall · land · mark · straw

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  3. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. He works in a ________________ mill.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. She's very handy with a ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  24. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. fall — to drop
  3. saw — past of 'see'
  4. land — ground
  5. toast — the most admired
  6. land — to come down
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. clip — a video
  9. toast — bread
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. fall — the season
  12. mark — a grade
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cold — not warm
  15. saw — the tool
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. toast — a drink to someone
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. saw — the tool
  20. clip — for paper
  21. fall — to drop
  22. clip — to cut
  23. mark — to pay attention
  24. mark — a trace

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