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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 124 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 strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  6. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  7. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  16. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  19. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. hide — animal skin
  6. dip — a sauce
  7. patient — a sick person
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. wind — moving air
  10. cold — an illness
  11. sharp — clever
  12. patient — calm and waiting
  13. cold — not warm
  14. shower — to wash
  15. hide — to keep secret
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. shower — rain
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. dip — to sink
  20. row — a line
  21. dip — to dunk
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. row — to paddle
  24. cold — the Cold War

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