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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: cold · bear · rush · date · bat · fall · cap · row

  1. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  3. Have you settled on a ________________?
  4. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  5. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. That must've been a ________________.
  15. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  16. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  19. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  22. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  23. The water is too ________________.
  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. date — the fruit
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. rush — hurry
  6. fall — the season
  7. bat — the animal
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. cap — a hat
  11. row — a line
  12. cold — an illness
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. rush — a thrill
  15. rush — to hurry
  16. bear — the animal
  17. row — to paddle
  18. cap — of ice
  19. bear — the animal
  20. fall — to drop
  21. cap — a lid
  22. bear — to put up with
  23. cold — not warm
  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