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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: cold · rule · straw · fan · stem · tear · row · race

  1. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  8. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  12. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  18. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. stem — of a plant
  3. cold — not warm
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. tear — from crying
  6. race — humankind
  7. rule — government
  8. stem — a stem cell
  9. cold — an illness
  10. stem — to come from
  11. rule — a law
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. row — a line
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. race — a contest
  17. fan — to cool the air
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. race — the arms race
  22. tear — to rip
  23. row — to paddle
  24. cold — the Cold War

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