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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: wind · fan · rest · race · date · fall · cold · tear

  1. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  11. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. Have you settled on a ________________?
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  24. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. race — humankind
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. tear — to rip
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. rest — a break
  7. fall — the season
  8. fan — to cool the air
  9. wind — moving air
  10. rest — what's left
  11. date — the fruit
  12. fall — to drop
  13. race — the arms race
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cold — not warm
  16. fall — to drop
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. rest — what's left
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. tear — from crying
  21. tear — from crying
  22. wind — moving air
  23. race — a contest
  24. date — on the calendar

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