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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  7. She's very handy with a ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  20. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  21. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. shower — rain
  3. wind — moving air
  4. pass — to spend time
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. pass — to succeed
  7. saw — the tool
  8. mine — for digging
  9. wind — moving air
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. cell — a phone
  12. track — a path
  13. field — for sport
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. track — to keep track
  16. field — a subject
  17. field — farmland
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. saw — past of 'see'
  20. track — a song
  21. pass — a permit
  22. cell — in biology
  23. saw — the tool
  24. wind — to turn a key

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