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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  3. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  8. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  9. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  15. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. fall — to drop
  3. pitch — completely
  4. march — the month
  5. fall — to drop
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. wake — to stop sleeping
  8. pitch — a sports field
  9. pit — a fruit stone
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. bat — the animal
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. march — the month
  14. pit — in a race
  15. pitch — a sales talk
  16. wind — moving air
  17. wind — moving air
  18. fall — the season
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. march — music
  22. wake — a trail
  23. cold — an illness
  24. pit — a hole

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