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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. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  16. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. branch — of a tree
  3. drill — army training
  4. branch — a division
  5. fall — to drop
  6. fall — the season
  7. wake — to stop sleeping
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. face — part of the head
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. wake — a trail
  16. branch — of a bank
  17. cold — an illness
  18. fall — to drop
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. face — to confront
  21. face — to point toward
  22. drill — the tool
  23. mine — for digging
  24. drill — a practice

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