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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 had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. That must've been a ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. dip — a sauce
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. land — ground
  8. dip — to dunk
  9. hand — help
  10. rush — hurry
  11. land — a country
  12. rush — a thrill
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. file — a line of people
  15. file — a tool
  16. rush — to hurry
  17. hand — in cards
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. file — a document
  20. shower — to wash
  21. cold — not warm
  22. dip — to sink
  23. land — to come down
  24. shower — rain

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