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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 ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. When was this ________________ built?
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. row — a line
  3. temple — a place of worship
  4. spell — letters
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. spell — a short time
  7. land — to come down
  8. fall — to drop
  9. net — after costs
  10. fall — to drop
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. spell — magic
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. land — a country
  15. cold — not warm
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. temple — a place of worship
  18. row — to paddle
  19. cold — an illness
  20. land — ground
  21. fall — the season
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. net — for catching
  24. temple — side of the head

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