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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: snap · hand · cold · file · fall · wind · mine · bat

  1. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. bat — the animal
  4. snap — to click
  5. wind — moving air
  6. cold — not warm
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. file — a line of people
  9. file — a document
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. hand — help
  13. mine — for digging
  14. hand — in cards
  15. file — a tool
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. fall — the season
  20. fall — to drop
  21. cold — an illness
  22. wind — moving air
  23. fall — to drop
  24. cold — the Cold War

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