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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: deal · temple · land · kid · row · cold · fall · mine

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  8. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. When was this ________________ built?
  14. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. fall — the season
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. fall — to drop
  6. row — to paddle
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. fall — to drop
  9. kid — to tease
  10. land — to come down
  11. deal — an agreement
  12. kid — child
  13. temple — a place of worship
  14. temple — side of the head
  15. cold — an illness
  16. land — ground
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. deal — to handle
  19. mine — for digging
  20. row — a line
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. land — a country
  23. deal — a big deal
  24. mine — belonging to me

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