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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: wake · rash · land · fall · tube · chair · cold · row

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  7. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I'll be taking the ________________.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Don't do anything ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. fall — the season
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. rash — a series
  5. land — to come down
  6. fall — to drop
  7. wake — to stop sleeping
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. tube — a container
  10. row — to paddle
  11. wake — a trail
  12. fall — to drop
  13. land — a country
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. row — a line
  17. land — ground
  18. rash — on the skin
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. tube — the underground
  21. chair — a leader
  22. cold — not warm
  23. cold — an illness
  24. rash — hasty

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