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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  6. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. row — a line
  5. swing — music
  6. dip — to dunk
  7. cold — an illness
  8. dip — a sauce
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. swing — to play on
  11. shower — rain
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. mine — for digging
  15. court — of a king
  16. swing — in golf
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. court — of law
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. court — for sport
  21. dip — to sink
  22. cold — not warm
  23. row — to paddle
  24. shower — to wash

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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