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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: shower · straw · cue · march · mine · court

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. cue — a signal
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. march — music
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. cue — for pool
  7. march — the month
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. shower — rain
  10. march — the month
  11. cue — a hint
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. mine — for digging
  14. court — for sport
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. court — of law
  17. court — of a king
  18. shower — a meteor shower

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