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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 water is too ________________.
  2. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  5. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  6. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. wave — a sudden rise
  3. march — music
  4. scale — for weighing
  5. club — for golf
  6. wave — of the sea
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. scale — in music
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. club — for dancing
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. scale — size or range
  13. wave — with your hand
  14. bark — to shout
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. shower — rain
  17. club — a group
  18. shower — to wash
  19. land — ground
  20. march — the month
  21. march — the month
  22. land — a country
  23. land — to come down
  24. cold — an illness

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