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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  12. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  15. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  18. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The ________________ went through the wall.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. cold — not warm
  5. pitch — completely
  6. wound — an injury
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. club — for dancing
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. nail — on a finger
  12. wake — a trail
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. club — a group
  15. club — for golf
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. pitch — a sports field
  18. pitch — a sales talk
  19. wound — an injury
  20. shower — to wash
  21. cold — an illness
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. nail — for a hammer
  24. shower — rain

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