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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  11. Don't do anything ________________.
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  21. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. fall — the season
  6. fall — to drop
  7. wind — moving air
  8. land — to come down
  9. wind — moving air
  10. rash — on the skin
  11. rash — hasty
  12. rash — a series
  13. row — a line
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. land — ground
  16. row — to paddle
  17. land — a country
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. wake — a trail
  20. craft — a skill
  21. craft — boats
  22. cold — an illness
  23. fall — to drop
  24. craft — a handicraft

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