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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: land · swing · cold · snap · rest · ground · race · straw

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. There's no middle ________________.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. land — to come down
  3. cold — an illness
  4. race — a contest
  5. ground — a position
  6. snap — to click
  7. cold — not warm
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. swing — music
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. rest — what's left
  12. ground — crushed
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. race — the arms race
  16. swing — in golf
  17. rest — a break
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. land — ground
  20. rest — what's left
  21. land — a country
  22. ground — the earth
  23. race — humankind
  24. swing — to play on

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