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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 soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  4. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  15. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. You don't need to ________________ round.
  20. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. We're almost out of ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Don't do anything ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — army training
  2. shower — to wash
  3. lash — to lash out
  4. fan — to cool the air
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. drill — a practice
  7. lash — a whip stroke
  8. cold — an illness
  9. rash — on the skin
  10. clip — to cut
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. drill — the tool
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. lash — an eyelash
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. clip — for paper
  17. pop — music
  18. cold — not warm
  19. pop — to visit
  20. rash — a series
  21. shower — rain
  22. pop — soda
  23. clip — a video
  24. rash — hasty

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