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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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  12. He works in a ________________ mill.
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. She's very handy with a ________________.
  19. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  20. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  21. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  22. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. file — a tool
  3. ground — a position
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. fall — the season
  6. file — a line of people
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. ground — the earth
  9. fall — to drop
  10. kick — in football
  11. wax — for sculpting
  12. saw — the tool
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. cold — not warm
  15. cold — an illness
  16. file — a document
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. saw — the tool
  19. wax — in the ear
  20. perch — the fish
  21. ground — crushed
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. wax — to grow

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