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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. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  11. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  23. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. mark — to pay attention
  3. bass — the fish
  4. cold — an illness
  5. fine — all right
  6. drill — a practice
  7. ground — crushed
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. drill — army training
  10. mark — a grade
  11. mark — a trace
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. spring — the season
  14. shower — rain
  15. bass — low music
  16. shower — to wash
  17. spring — of water
  18. ground — a position
  19. ground — the earth
  20. fine — high quality
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. fine — a penalty
  23. drill — the tool
  24. spring — a coil

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