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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: snap · mate · cold · fall · prune · capital · straw · drill

  1. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  9. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. Have you found your soul ________________?
  19. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. fall — to drop
  3. prune — to trim
  4. capital — money
  5. cold — an illness
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. mate — to breed
  9. fall — to drop
  10. drill — a practice
  11. prune — to trim
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. drill — the tool
  15. snap — to click
  16. cold — not warm
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. mate — a partner
  19. mate — a friend
  20. drill — army training
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. capital — a city
  23. fall — the season
  24. prune — the fruit

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