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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. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. He is an ace ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. The ________________ took off on time.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. There's no middle ________________.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. cold — not warm
  3. land — a country
  4. ground — the earth
  5. spring — of water
  6. pitcher — in baseball
  7. cold — an illness
  8. spring — the season
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. land — ground
  12. plane — an aircraft
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. ground — a position
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. fall — the season
  17. plane — a tool
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. patient — calm and waiting
  20. land — to come down
  21. fall — to drop
  22. ground — crushed
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. spring — a coil

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