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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 116 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. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  2. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  10. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  11. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  24. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of a car
  2. trunk — of an elephant
  3. shower — rain
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. current — happening now
  6. game — wild animals
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cold — not warm
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. current — electric
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. last — to go on
  15. last — finally
  16. game — a match
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. current — of water
  20. shower — to wash
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. last — final
  23. patient — calm and waiting
  24. patient — a sick person

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