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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. What do you think of the new ________________?
  2. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  3. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  12. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. cabinet — ministers
  2. lean — to rest against
  3. cabinet — ministers
  4. fall — to drop
  5. spring — a coil
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cold — an illness
  9. shower — rain
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. hide — animal skin
  12. lean — thin
  13. spring — of water
  14. spring — the season
  15. hide — to keep secret
  16. shower — to wash
  17. lean — to bend
  18. file — a document
  19. file — a tool
  20. file — a line of people
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. fall — to drop
  23. cabinet — a cupboard
  24. fall — 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