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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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. How do you ________________ your surname?
  9. Have you met the new head ________________?
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. We're almost out of ________________.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. cue — a signal
  3. pop — to visit
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cue — for pool
  6. shower — to wash
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. spell — letters
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. spell — a short time
  11. shower — rain
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. pop — music
  15. cold — not warm
  16. wound — an injury
  17. cue — a hint
  18. bat — the animal
  19. pop — soda
  20. wound — an injury
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. spell — magic
  23. cold — an illness
  24. coach — a trainer

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