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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  10. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  11. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  12. He works in a ________________ mill.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. Don't do anything ________________.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. drill — the tool
  3. drill — a practice
  4. shower — to wash
  5. saw — past of 'see'
  6. march — music
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. march — the month
  9. hide — animal skin
  10. rash — on the skin
  11. hide — to keep secret
  12. saw — the tool
  13. shower — rain
  14. saw — the tool
  15. march — the month
  16. rash — a series
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. spring — the season
  19. rash — hasty
  20. spring — of water
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. hide — to keep secret
  23. drill — army training
  24. spring — a coil

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