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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 120 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. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  18. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — boats
  2. tear — to rip
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. tear — from crying
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. root — of a word
  7. cold — not warm
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. fall — to drop
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. fall — to drop
  12. craft — a skill
  13. mine — for digging
  14. craft — a handicraft
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. fall — the season
  18. root — the cause
  19. tear — from crying
  20. wake — a trail
  21. row — a line
  22. cold — an illness
  23. root — of a plant
  24. row — to paddle

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