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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. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  22. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  23. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  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. drill — the tool
  2. cold — an illness
  3. fall — the season
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. bat — the animal
  6. mouse — the animal
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cold — not warm
  9. shower — to wash
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. drill — a practice
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. fall — to drop
  17. mouse — the animal
  18. drill — army training
  19. band — a music group
  20. bark — to shout
  21. fall — to drop
  22. mouse — for a computer
  23. band — a ring
  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