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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  4. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  5. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  6. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  9. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. cold — not warm
  3. stem — a stem cell
  4. wake — a trail
  5. squash — to crush
  6. stem — to come from
  7. cold — an illness
  8. stem — of a plant
  9. last — final
  10. last — to go on
  11. squash — the vegetable
  12. game — wild animals
  13. fall — to drop
  14. wound — an injury
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. wound — an injury
  18. game — a match
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. wake — to stop sleeping
  21. fall — the season
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. last — finally
  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