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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. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  3. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  4. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  13. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. Have you found your soul ________________?
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. jam — to spread on bread
  3. snap — to speak sharply
  4. bark — of a tree
  5. tear — from crying
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. land — ground
  9. cold — an illness
  10. mate — a friend
  11. fall — to drop
  12. jam — a tight spot
  13. jam — in traffic
  14. bark — to shout
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. mate — a partner
  17. snap — to click
  18. mate — to breed
  19. tear — from crying
  20. land — to come down
  21. land — a country
  22. fall — the season
  23. cold — not warm
  24. tear — to rip

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