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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. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  2. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  3. I'll be taking the ________________.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  6. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cue — a signal
  2. fall — the season
  3. tube — the underground
  4. fall — to drop
  5. bass — low music
  6. tube — in a tire
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. shower — to wash
  9. fall — to drop
  10. bass — the instrument
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cue — for pool
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. kid — to tease
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. kid — child
  19. tube — a container
  20. cue — a hint
  21. cold — an illness
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. shower — rain
  24. bass — the fish

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