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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 is an ace ________________.
  2. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — in baseball
  2. mouse — the animal
  3. shower — rain
  4. band — a music group
  5. clip — to cut
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. cold — an illness
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. cold — not warm
  10. field — farmland
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. band — a ring
  13. clip — a video
  14. mouse — the animal
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. mouse — for a computer
  17. clip — for paper
  18. present — there
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. present — a gift
  21. field — a subject
  22. present — the time now
  23. field — for sport
  24. shower — to wash

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