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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. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  4. Don't do anything ________________.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — to lash out
  2. fall — to drop
  3. lash — an eyelash
  4. rash — hasty
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. net — in sport
  7. bass — the fish
  8. rash — a series
  9. row — a line
  10. bass — low music
  11. fall — the season
  12. degree — from a university
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cold — not warm
  15. degree — temperature
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. net — for catching
  18. degree — an amount
  19. rash — on the skin
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. net — after costs
  23. fall — to drop
  24. row — to paddle

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