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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. When was this ________________ built?
  5. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  10. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. spring — a coil
  3. bass — the fish
  4. temple — a place of worship
  5. craft — a skill
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — not warm
  8. spring — the season
  9. craft — boats
  10. temple — a place of worship
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. craft — a handicraft
  14. bass — low music
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. shower — rain
  17. temple — side of the head
  18. spring — of water

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