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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 120 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 who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. She's very handy with a ________________.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. He works in a ________________ mill.
  17. Don't do anything ________________.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. cold — an illness
  4. fall — the season
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. saw — the tool
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. fall — to drop
  9. rash — a series
  10. land — ground
  11. row — to paddle
  12. land — to come down
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. saw — the tool
  17. rash — hasty
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. trunk — of an elephant
  20. wind — moving air
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. land — a country
  23. wind — moving air
  24. row — a line

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