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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. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  14. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. The ________________ change colour in autumn.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — rain
  2. drill — army training
  3. pound — a weight
  4. hand — help
  5. cold — an illness
  6. drill — a practice
  7. leaves — lets stay
  8. drill — the tool
  9. land — to come down
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. last — final
  12. land — ground
  13. leaves — to go away
  14. pound — for dogs
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. shower — to wash
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. hand — in cards
  19. last — finally
  20. cold — not warm
  21. last — to go on
  22. pound — to hit hard
  23. land — a country
  24. leaves — of a tree

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