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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: cold · bowl · tear · fall · bass · rest · game · jam

  1. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  11. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  15. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  16. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  17. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  18. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  24. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. jam — to spread on bread
  4. game — a match
  5. jam — a tight spot
  6. tear — from crying
  7. fall — to drop
  8. bass — the instrument
  9. cold — an illness
  10. bass — the fish
  11. rest — a break
  12. fall — the season
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. rest — what's left
  15. jam — in traffic
  16. bowl — to roll
  17. bowl — a dish
  18. bass — low music
  19. game — wild animals
  20. cold — not warm
  21. tear — to rip
  22. tear — from crying
  23. rest — what's left
  24. bowl — a football final

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