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

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  4. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  7. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. shower — rain
  3. racket — a loud noise
  4. cue — a hint
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. ground — the earth
  8. ground — crushed
  9. cold — an illness
  10. clip — to cut
  11. cue — a signal
  12. ground — a position
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. cue — for pool
  15. shower — to wash
  16. clip — for paper
  17. racket — for tennis
  18. clip — a video

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