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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: bat · kid · swing · spell · fall · cold · lean · march

  1. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  3. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. swing — in golf
  3. lean — to rest against
  4. march — the month
  5. swing — to play on
  6. spell — magic
  7. bat — the animal
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. fall — the season
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. lean — thin
  12. spell — letters
  13. march — music
  14. spell — a short time
  15. fall — to drop
  16. march — the month
  17. cold — an illness
  18. cold — not warm
  19. kid — child
  20. lean — to bend
  21. swing — music
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. kid — to tease
  24. bat — in an idiom

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