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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  3. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. My mare is ________________ in color.
  11. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  17. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. drill — a practice
  3. dip — to dunk
  4. file — a document
  5. file — a line of people
  6. shower — rain
  7. row — to paddle
  8. chip — to eat
  9. drill — army training
  10. bay — a horse colour
  11. bay — a part of the sea
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cold — an illness
  14. row — a line
  15. drill — the tool
  16. bay — to keep at bay
  17. chip — in a computer
  18. cold — not warm
  19. dip — to sink
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. dip — a sauce
  22. file — a tool
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. chip — for betting

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