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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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Word bank
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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: rash · march · charge · bat · straw · ground · hand · cold

  1. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The tickets are free of ________________.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. ground — the earth
  3. march — the month
  4. hand — help
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. bat — the animal
  9. charge — in control
  10. cold — not warm
  11. ground — crushed
  12. rash — a series
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. charge — a price
  16. ground — a position
  17. rash — on the skin
  18. march — music
  19. charge — electricity
  20. cold — an illness
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. march — the month
  23. hand — in cards
  24. bat — for baseball

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