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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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. He is an ace ________________.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  24. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. rest — a break
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. wound — an injury
  5. pitcher — in baseball
  6. game — wild animals
  7. fall — to drop
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. cold — not warm
  12. wake — a trail
  13. last — final
  14. fall — to drop
  15. rest — what's left
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. game — a match
  18. last — finally
  19. rest — what's left
  20. wound — an injury
  21. cold — an illness
  22. fall — the season
  23. wake — to stop sleeping
  24. last — to go on

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