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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. I've got to change the light ________________.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. The light ________________ burned out.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. shower — rain
  3. bulb — of a plant
  4. court — of a king
  5. shower — to wash
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. clip — for paper
  8. cold — not warm
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. court — of law
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. court — for sport
  13. fall — the season
  14. scale — in music
  15. clip — a video
  16. fall — to drop
  17. fall — to drop
  18. bulb — for light
  19. scale — size or range
  20. bark — to shout
  21. clip — to cut
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. bulb — for light
  24. cold — an illness

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