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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 120 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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  4. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. Don't do anything ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. cold — an illness
  3. fall — to drop
  4. squash — to crush
  5. shower — to wash
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. march — the month
  8. fall — to drop
  9. march — the month
  10. squash — the sport
  11. march — music
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. fall — the season
  14. wound — an injury
  15. rash — a series
  16. shower — rain
  17. rash — hasty
  18. cold — not warm
  19. rash — on the skin
  20. court — for sport
  21. court — of law
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. court — of a king
  24. cold — the Cold War

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