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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. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  9. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  13. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  14. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  24. When was this ________________ built?

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. field — a subject
  3. safe — a strongbox
  4. fall — to drop
  5. wind — moving air
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. fall — the season
  9. temple — a place of worship
  10. shower — to wash
  11. field — for sport
  12. safe — out of danger
  13. safe — out of danger
  14. spell — magic
  15. wind — moving air
  16. field — farmland
  17. cold — an illness
  18. shower — rain
  19. cold — not warm
  20. spell — a short time
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. fall — to drop
  23. temple — side of the head
  24. temple — a place of worship

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