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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. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. fall — to drop
  3. chest — a box
  4. bowl — a dish
  5. perch — the fish
  6. face — to point toward
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. bowl — a football final
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. cold — not warm
  11. cold — an illness
  12. content — happy
  13. bowl — to roll
  14. content — the amount
  15. fall — the season
  16. chest — of your body
  17. face — part of the head
  18. spell — a short time
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. chest — of your body
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. spell — letters
  23. face — to confront
  24. spell — magic

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