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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. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — what's left
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. cold — not warm
  4. rest — a break
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. cell — in biology
  8. row — to paddle
  9. drill — the tool
  10. fall — to drop
  11. fall — to drop
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. calf — of the leg
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. rest — what's left
  17. bat — the animal
  18. cell — a phone
  19. row — a line
  20. drill — a practice
  21. cold — an illness
  22. calf — a young animal
  23. fall — the season
  24. drill — army training

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