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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. The King held a masked ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  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. bat — the animal
  2. fall — to drop
  3. land — a country
  4. ball — a round shape
  5. prune — to trim
  6. march — the month
  7. prune — to trim
  8. march — music
  9. race — humankind
  10. fall — the season
  11. degree — an amount
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. ball — a great time
  15. degree — from a university
  16. ball — a dance
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. land — to come down
  19. race — a contest
  20. degree — temperature
  21. race — the arms race
  22. land — ground
  23. march — the month
  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