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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. David sat on the ________________.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. bark — to shout
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. wind — moving air
  6. cell — in biology
  7. wind — moving air
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. cell — a phone
  10. swing — music
  11. cold — not warm
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. shower — rain
  14. land — to come down
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. cold — an illness
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. land — a country
  20. swing — to play on
  21. swing — in golf
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. land — ground
  24. bark — of a tree

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