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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. shower — rain
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. hand — help
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. cold — an illness
  7. mark — a trace
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. bat — the animal
  11. hand — in cards
  12. cold — not warm
  13. mark — to pay attention
  14. snap — to click
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. mark — a grade
  18. shower — a meteor shower

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