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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 water is too ________________.
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. David sat on the ________________.
  7. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  15. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  16. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  22. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  23. Did you ________________ the meat?
  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 — not warm
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. season — in sport
  4. wind — moving air
  5. shower — to wash
  6. swing — to play on
  7. swing — music
  8. shower — rain
  9. bowl — a dish
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. wind — moving air
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. chip — to eat
  15. bowl — to roll
  16. bowl — a football final
  17. swing — in golf
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. chip — for betting
  20. cold — an illness
  21. season — of the year
  22. chip — in a computer
  23. season — to add flavour
  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