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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. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.

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

Answer key

  1. object — to protest
  2. squash — the sport
  3. lean — to rest against
  4. land — a country
  5. cold — not warm
  6. land — ground
  7. lean — thin
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. fall — to drop
  11. cold — an illness
  12. fall — the season
  13. clip — a video
  14. squash — to crush
  15. fall — to drop
  16. clip — for paper
  17. object — a thing
  18. clip — to cut
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. object — an aim
  21. chair — a leader
  22. land — to come down
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. lean — to bend

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