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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. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  12. I've got to change the light ________________.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. The light ________________ burned out.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. rash — a series
  4. shower — rain
  5. sharp — clever
  6. chest — of your body
  7. bulb — of a plant
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. drill — army training
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. drill — a practice
  12. bulb — for light
  13. cell — a phone
  14. drill — the tool
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. bulb — for light
  17. cold — an illness
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. rash — hasty
  21. shower — to wash
  22. chest — of your body
  23. chest — a box
  24. cell — in biology

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