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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 124 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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: fall · cold · craft · tear · row · ground

  1. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  7. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  8. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. ground — crushed
  3. cold — an illness
  4. craft — a handicraft
  5. tear — from crying
  6. fall — to drop
  7. ground — the earth
  8. fall — the season
  9. tear — from crying
  10. cold — not warm
  11. craft — a skill
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. row — to paddle
  14. tear — to rip
  15. ground — a position
  16. craft — boats
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. row — a line

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