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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  4. When was this ________________ built?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  11. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  12. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  15. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. The ________________ took off on time.
  20. My father caught me by the ________________.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. tear — to rip
  3. temple — side of the head
  4. temple — a place of worship
  5. cold — not warm
  6. shower — to wash
  7. fall — to drop
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. tear — from crying
  10. arm — a part of something
  11. plane — in geometry
  12. fall — to drop
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. plane — a tool
  15. temple — a place of worship
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. arm — part of the body
  18. bat — the animal
  19. plane — an aircraft
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. fall — the season
  22. shower — rain
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. cold — an illness

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