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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. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  2. The ________________ took off on time.
  3. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. mouse — for a computer
  2. plane — an aircraft
  3. mouse — the animal
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. trunk — of an elephant
  6. cold — not warm
  7. cell — a phone
  8. plane — a tool
  9. shower — to wash
  10. cold — an illness
  11. shower — rain
  12. march — the month
  13. content — happy
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. mouse — the animal
  16. content — the amount
  17. trunk — of a car
  18. march — music
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. march — the month
  24. cell — in biology

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