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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 took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  6. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. How do you ________________ your surname?
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. She's very handy with a ________________.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. He has no idea where the ________________ is.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. shower — rain
  3. mark — a trace
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. mark — to pay attention
  6. mark — a grade
  7. spell — a short time
  8. safe — out of danger
  9. game — a match
  10. cold — not warm
  11. saw — the tool
  12. spell — magic
  13. safe — out of danger
  14. cold — an illness
  15. spell — letters
  16. file — a document
  17. saw — the tool
  18. game — wild animals
  19. saw — past of 'see'
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. file — a line of people
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. file — a tool
  24. safe — a strongbox

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