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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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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: bound · bass · cold · fall · row · cell · wake · fine

  1. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  10. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  13. That was ________________ to happen.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  19. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. cold — not warm
  3. cell — a phone
  4. fall — to drop
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. wake — to stop sleeping
  7. fall — the season
  8. cell — in biology
  9. fine — a penalty
  10. bound — tied together
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. fine — high quality
  13. bound — certain
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. bass — the fish
  16. cold — an illness
  17. row — to paddle
  18. fall — to drop
  19. bound — obliged
  20. row — a line
  21. bass — low music
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. bass — the instrument
  24. wake — a trail

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