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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 116 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. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  7. The ________________ took off on time.
  8. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — low music
  2. cold — an illness
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. plane — a tool
  5. wind — moving air
  6. fall — to drop
  7. plane — an aircraft
  8. bass — the instrument
  9. land — ground
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. fall — to drop
  12. fall — the season
  13. hand — in cards
  14. hand — help
  15. land — a country
  16. wind — moving air
  17. plane — in geometry
  18. cold — not warm
  19. bass — the fish
  20. land — to come down
  21. kid — to tease
  22. kid — child
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. cold — the Cold War

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