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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. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. I seem to be developing a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. rash — a series
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. fall — to drop
  5. land — ground
  6. cold — not warm
  7. track — a path
  8. field — farmland
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. last — final
  11. last — finally
  12. last — to go on
  13. cold — an illness
  14. land — to come down
  15. fall — the season
  16. track — a song
  17. fall — to drop
  18. track — to keep track
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. land — a country
  21. field — for sport
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. field — a subject
  24. rash — on the skin

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