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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  12. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. You don't need to ________________ round.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  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. cold — an illness
  2. cold — not warm
  3. spell — magic
  4. pop — music
  5. shower — to wash
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. pop — soda
  8. racket — for tennis
  9. mine — for digging
  10. wax — to grow
  11. wax — in the ear
  12. racket — for tennis
  13. shower — rain
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. racket — a loud noise
  17. spell — letters
  18. spell — a short time
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. pop — to visit
  23. bark — to shout
  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