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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: land · hand · last · leaves · swing · wind · pound · tear

  1. False peace will not ________________.
  2. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  18. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. leaves — of a tree
  3. wind — moving air
  4. land — a country
  5. tear — from crying
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. hand — help
  9. leaves — lets stay
  10. land — ground
  11. leaves — to go away
  12. last — final
  13. tear — from crying
  14. swing — to play on
  15. wind — moving air
  16. land — to come down
  17. pound — a weight
  18. pound — to hit hard
  19. tear — to rip
  20. last — finally
  21. swing — in golf
  22. swing — music
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. hand — in cards

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