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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 124 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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  8. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  9. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  10. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  11. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. lash — to lash out
  3. file — a line of people
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. cold — an illness
  6. cold — not warm
  7. craft — a skill
  8. lash — an eyelash
  9. lash — a whip stroke
  10. craft — boats
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. file — a document
  14. swing — in golf
  15. wind — moving air
  16. spell — a short time
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. spell — magic
  19. swing — to play on
  20. swing — music
  21. date — the fruit
  22. file — a tool
  23. craft — a handicraft
  24. spell — letters

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