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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  4. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. fall — to drop
  3. row — to paddle
  4. wake — before a funeral
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. fall — the season
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. file — a document
  9. swing — music
  10. wound — an injury
  11. court — of a king
  12. swing — in golf
  13. file — a tool
  14. swing — to play on
  15. court — of law
  16. fall — to drop
  17. wake — a trail
  18. wake — to stop sleeping
  19. cell — a phone
  20. wound — an injury
  21. row — a line
  22. cell — in biology
  23. file — a line of people
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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