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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 ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  10. I can't ________________ this cold.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  19. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  20. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  21. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  22. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. file — a line of people
  3. cold — an illness
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. stand — for spectators
  6. shower — to wash
  7. hand — in cards
  8. hand — help
  9. hide — to keep secret
  10. stand — to bear
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. sharp — with an edge
  13. shower — rain
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. file — a document
  16. file — a tool
  17. cold — not warm
  18. sharp — clever
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. stand — on your feet
  21. hide — to keep secret
  22. hide — animal skin
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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