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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 116 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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. shower — rain
  3. prune — to trim
  4. row — a line
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. last — finally
  8. row — to paddle
  9. vault — an arched ceiling
  10. last — to go on
  11. cold — an illness
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. game — a match
  14. vault — a safe
  15. file — a line of people
  16. file — a document
  17. vault — in gymnastics
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. file — a tool
  20. shower — to wash
  21. cold — not warm
  22. game — wild animals
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. prune — to trim

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