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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. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. The King held a masked ________________.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. row — to paddle
  4. row — a line
  5. land — ground
  6. bark — to shout
  7. ball — a great time
  8. fall — to drop
  9. spell — a short time
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. ball — a dance
  12. land — to come down
  13. spell — magic
  14. cold — not warm
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. land — a country
  17. spell — letters
  18. fall — the season
  19. hand — help
  20. bark — of a tree
  21. cold — an illness
  22. hand — in cards
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. ball — a round shape

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