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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. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  12. This piece is in a major ________________.
  13. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. tear — to rip
  3. key — the most important part
  4. march — the month
  5. shower — rain
  6. bank — for money
  7. march — music
  8. wound — an injury
  9. wind — moving air
  10. file — a tool
  11. bank — of a river
  12. key — in music
  13. bank — for money
  14. tear — from crying
  15. wound — an injury
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. file — a document
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. tear — from crying
  20. file — a line of people
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. key — for a lock
  23. march — the month
  24. wind — moving air

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