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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. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  4. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  12. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  13. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  19. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  20. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. track — to keep track
  4. patient — a sick person
  5. degree — an amount
  6. fall — to drop
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. cold — an illness
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. degree — temperature
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. patient — calm and waiting
  13. track — a path
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. wind — moving air
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. fall — the season
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. track — a song
  21. cold — not warm
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. degree — from a university
  24. wind — moving air

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