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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. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  7. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  11. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  12. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. track — a song
  3. clip — to cut
  4. chest — of your body
  5. fall — the season
  6. race — a contest
  7. track — to keep track
  8. race — humankind
  9. wind — moving air
  10. staff — employees
  11. staff — a stick
  12. track — a path
  13. chest — a box
  14. clip — for paper
  15. chest — of your body
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. spring — of water
  18. staff — employees
  19. fall — to drop
  20. race — the arms race
  21. clip — a video
  22. wind — moving air
  23. spring — a coil
  24. spring — the season

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