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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 116 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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  4. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  5. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  6. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  7. Don't do anything ________________.
  8. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  9. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  10. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. This piece is in a major ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. key — for a lock
  4. rock — a stone
  5. rock — to move gently
  6. rash — on the skin
  7. rash — hasty
  8. key — the most important part
  9. rash — a series
  10. fall — the season
  11. hand — help
  12. fall — to drop
  13. row — a line
  14. clip — to cut
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. clip — for paper
  18. hand — in cards
  19. row — to paddle
  20. clip — a video
  21. key — in music
  22. cold — not warm
  23. cold — an illness
  24. fall — to drop

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