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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: pop · pass · cold · saw · land · chest · row · tear

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  6. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  12. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. We're almost out of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. saw — the tool
  3. cold — an illness
  4. chest — of your body
  5. saw — past of 'see'
  6. pass — a permit
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. tear — from crying
  9. tear — from crying
  10. land — to come down
  11. pass — to succeed
  12. pass — to spend time
  13. pop — to visit
  14. row — a line
  15. pop — music
  16. land — ground
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. land — a country
  19. chest — a box
  20. saw — the tool
  21. tear — to rip
  22. chest — of your body
  23. row — to paddle
  24. pop — soda

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