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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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. He is an ace ________________.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  23. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. squash — the sport
  3. squash — to crush
  4. fall — to drop
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. perch — the fish
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. wake — before a funeral
  10. tear — to rip
  11. fall — to drop
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. tear — from crying
  14. cold — an illness
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. tear — from crying
  17. cold — not warm
  18. pitcher — in baseball
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. fall — the season
  22. season — of the year
  23. season — in sport
  24. wake — a trail

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