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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's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  5. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  6. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. That was ________________ to happen.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. fall — to drop
  3. wound — an injury
  4. lash — an eyelash
  5. bound — tied together
  6. patient — calm and waiting
  7. wound — an injury
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. field — farmland
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. fall — the season
  14. cold — an illness
  15. lash — a whip stroke
  16. field — a subject
  17. lash — to lash out
  18. field — for sport
  19. bound — obliged
  20. shower — rain
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. bound — certain
  23. cold — not warm
  24. fall — to drop

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