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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: field · cold · row · hand · wind · firm · squash · snap

  1. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. field — farmland
  3. squash — to crush
  4. hand — help
  5. firm — steady
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. firm — a company
  8. wind — moving air
  9. squash — the sport
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. row — to paddle
  12. field — for sport
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. hand — in cards
  16. field — a subject
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. wind — moving air
  19. cold — an illness
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. snap — to click
  22. cold — not warm
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. firm — decided

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