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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. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. fall — to drop
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. fall — the season
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. wound — an injury
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. wound — an injury
  9. cold — not warm
  10. degree — an amount
  11. wind — moving air
  12. pitch — a sports field
  13. last — to go on
  14. cold — an illness
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. fall — to drop
  17. pitch — completely
  18. degree — from a university
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. last — final
  21. pitch — a sales talk
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. degree — temperature
  24. last — finally

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