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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. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  9. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. The ________________ went through the wall.
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. row — to paddle
  2. cold — an illness
  3. land — ground
  4. nail — for a hammer
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. chest — of your body
  7. row — a line
  8. roll — a cake
  9. cap — a lid
  10. cap — of ice
  11. roll — a list
  12. chest — a box
  13. chest — of your body
  14. land — a country
  15. land — to come down
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. nail — for a hammer
  19. cap — a hat
  20. shower — to wash
  21. nail — on a finger
  22. shower — rain
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cold — the Cold War

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