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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. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. Have you found your soul ________________?
  7. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  19. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  20. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  24. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. mate — to breed
  3. club — a group
  4. mine — for digging
  5. fall — the season
  6. mate — a partner
  7. mate — a friend
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. capital — a city
  10. bark — to shout
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. bat — the animal
  13. fall — to drop
  14. root — the cause
  15. capital — money
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. root — of a word
  19. club — for golf
  20. bark — of a tree
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. root — of a plant
  24. club — for dancing

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