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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: chest · last · roll · wind · cold · hide · rash · current

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  6. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  11. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  14. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  15. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  16. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  17. Don't do anything ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. We're on a ________________ here.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  22. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. chest — of your body
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. wind — moving air
  5. rash — a series
  6. current — happening now
  7. chest — a box
  8. last — to go on
  9. wind — moving air
  10. roll — a cake
  11. roll — a list
  12. chest — of your body
  13. current — electric
  14. hide — animal skin
  15. rash — on the skin
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. rash — hasty
  18. cold — not warm
  19. roll — on a roll
  20. last — finally
  21. hide — to keep secret
  22. current — of water
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. last — 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