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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 120 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: tear · straw · cold · rest · spell · scale · swing · kid

  1. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  4. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. David sat on the ________________.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. tear — to rip
  3. spell — a short time
  4. rest — what's left
  5. kid — child
  6. spell — letters
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. swing — in golf
  9. scale — in music
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. scale — size or range
  12. tear — from crying
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. kid — to tease
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. rest — what's left
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. swing — music
  19. tear — from crying
  20. cold — not warm
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. cold — an illness
  23. swing — to play on
  24. spell — magic

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