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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 120 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 dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  11. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  12. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — a meteor shower
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. bear — the animal
  5. chest — of your body
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. field — a subject
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. bear — the animal
  11. bear — to put up with
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. chair — a leader
  14. shower — to wash
  15. cold — not warm
  16. chest — a box
  17. field — farmland
  18. shower — rain
  19. sharp — with an edge
  20. field — for sport
  21. sharp — clever
  22. chest — of your body
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. cold — an illness

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