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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. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. The tickets are free of ________________.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. roll — a cake
  3. content — the amount
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. bat — the animal
  6. wind — moving air
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. content — happy
  10. roll — a list
  11. cold — not warm
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. row — to paddle
  14. charge — electricity
  15. shower — rain
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. row — a line
  20. charge — a price
  21. wind — moving air
  22. charge — in control
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. cold — an illness

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