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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. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  6. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Did you ________________ the meat?
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  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. shower — a meteor shower
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. file — a tool
  4. cell — in biology
  5. bowl — to roll
  6. season — in sport
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. shower — to wash
  9. cold — not warm
  10. season — to add flavour
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. file — a document
  13. cold — an illness
  14. wound — an injury
  15. bowl — a football final
  16. bat — the animal
  17. season — of the year
  18. cell — a phone
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. wound — an injury
  22. file — a line of people
  23. bowl — a dish
  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