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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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Word bank
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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: face · tear · cold · fall · hand · court · lean · row

  1. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  21. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. court — of a king
  4. hand — help
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. tear — to rip
  7. cold — an illness
  8. face — part of the head
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. face — to point toward
  11. cold — not warm
  12. lean — to rest against
  13. row — a line
  14. court — of law
  15. court — for sport
  16. fall — the season
  17. face — to confront
  18. tear — from crying
  19. row — to paddle
  20. lean — to bend
  21. lean — thin
  22. fall — to drop
  23. hand — in cards
  24. tear — from crying

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