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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. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  7. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the instrument
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. fall — the season
  4. file — a line of people
  5. bat — the animal
  6. bass — the fish
  7. scale — for weighing
  8. fall — to drop
  9. wind — moving air
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. scale — in music
  12. wake — a trail
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. bass — low music
  15. file — a tool
  16. fall — to drop
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. wind — moving air
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. wake — before a funeral
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. scale — size or range
  23. file — a document
  24. wind — to turn a key

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