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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 120 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: face · wave · fall · wind · game · clip · dip · cold

  1. That was a fun ________________.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. fall — to drop
  3. wave — a sudden rise
  4. face — part of the head
  5. fall — to drop
  6. cold — not warm
  7. dip — to sink
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. face — to point toward
  10. wind — moving air
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. wave — of the sea
  13. fall — the season
  14. clip — to cut
  15. clip — for paper
  16. wave — with your hand
  17. face — to confront
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. dip — to dunk
  20. wind — moving air
  21. dip — a sauce
  22. cold — an illness
  23. clip — a video
  24. game — wild animals

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