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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. We're almost out of ________________.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. That was ________________ to happen.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. You don't need to ________________ round.
  21. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. fall — to drop
  3. content — happy
  4. fall — the season
  5. tear — to rip
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. file — a line of people
  9. pop — music
  10. pop — soda
  11. fall — to drop
  12. content — the amount
  13. file — a document
  14. bound — obliged
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. bound — certain
  18. file — a tool
  19. tear — from crying
  20. pop — to visit
  21. bound — tied together
  22. cell — a phone
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. cell — in biology

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