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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  5. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  13. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. wake — to stop sleeping
  5. firm — steady
  6. land — to come down
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. mine — for digging
  9. fall — the season
  10. shower — rain
  11. shower — to wash
  12. firm — a company
  13. firm — decided
  14. cold — not warm
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. land — ground
  17. fall — to drop
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. wound — an injury
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. wound — an injury
  22. land — a country
  23. wake — a trail
  24. fall — to drop

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