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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. I can't ________________ this cold.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  18. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. clip — for paper
  3. wind — moving air
  4. field — a subject
  5. wind — moving air
  6. land — ground
  7. tear — from crying
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. fall — the season
  10. clip — a video
  11. stand — to bear
  12. shower — rain
  13. fall — to drop
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. tear — to rip
  16. clip — to cut
  17. stand — on your feet
  18. stand — for spectators
  19. shower — to wash
  20. fall — to drop
  21. field — for sport
  22. field — farmland
  23. tear — from crying
  24. land — to come down

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