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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 120 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 rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  3. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  7. He works in a ________________ mill.
  8. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  9. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  15. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  16. She's very handy with a ________________.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. leaves — lets stay
  3. leaves — to go away
  4. fall — to drop
  5. tear — from crying
  6. club — for dancing
  7. saw — the tool
  8. leaves — of a tree
  9. fall — to drop
  10. tear — from crying
  11. spring — the season
  12. saw — past of 'see'
  13. cold — not warm
  14. fall — the season
  15. club — a group
  16. saw — the tool
  17. capital — a city
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. spring — a coil
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. cold — an illness
  22. capital — money
  23. tear — to rip
  24. spring — of water

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