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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. Have you settled on a ________________?
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. date — the fruit
  3. shower — rain
  4. spell — a short time
  5. shower — to wash
  6. sharp — clever
  7. chair — a leader
  8. club — for golf
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. bat — the animal
  13. club — a group
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. cold — not warm
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. chair — a professorship
  22. spell — magic
  23. cold — an illness
  24. spell — letters

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