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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. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  4. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  24. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. chest — of your body
  3. fan — to cool the air
  4. wake — a trail
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. shower — to wash
  11. snap — to click
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. chest — of your body
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. shower — rain
  16. mine — for digging
  17. cold — not warm
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. club — for dancing
  20. chest — a box
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. club — a group
  24. club — for golf

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