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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 116 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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. He works in a ________________ mill.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. She's very handy with a ________________.
  8. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. saw — the tool
  4. bat — the animal
  5. spring — the season
  6. tube — the underground
  7. saw — the tool
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. spring — of water
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. row — a line
  12. cold — not warm
  13. patient — calm and waiting
  14. fall — to drop
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. tube — a container
  19. spring — a coil
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. fall — the season
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. row — to paddle
  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