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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. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  2. I've got to change the light ________________.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. David sat on the ________________.
  8. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  17. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  18. The light ________________ burned out.
  19. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  20. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  21. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bulb — of a plant
  2. bulb — for light
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. ball — a dance
  5. cold — an illness
  6. ball — a great time
  7. swing — to play on
  8. trunk — of a tree
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. bat — the animal
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. cold — not warm
  14. shower — to wash
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. trunk — of an elephant
  17. stick — a piece of wood
  18. bulb — for light
  19. swing — in golf
  20. stick — to attach or keep to
  21. stick — a piece of wood
  22. swing — music
  23. shower — rain
  24. ball — a round shape

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