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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 116 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. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  2. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. The King held a masked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — army training
  2. cue — for pool
  3. shower — to wash
  4. cue — a hint
  5. mine — for digging
  6. cold — an illness
  7. drill — a practice
  8. row — a line
  9. drill — the tool
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. ball — a great time
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. cue — a signal
  16. row — to paddle
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. cold — not warm
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. shower — rain
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. ball — a dance

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