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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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 · swing · cold · coach · safe · ball · field · clip

  1. The King held a masked ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  7. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  10. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Have you met the new head ________________?
  17. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  18. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a dance
  2. shower — to wash
  3. clip — to cut
  4. clip — for paper
  5. cold — not warm
  6. safe — out of danger
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. cold — an illness
  9. swing — in golf
  10. coach — pulled by horses
  11. field — a subject
  12. shower — rain
  13. ball — a great time
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. ball — a round shape
  18. safe — out of danger
  19. field — farmland
  20. safe — a strongbox
  21. swing — music
  22. field — for sport
  23. clip — a video
  24. swing — to play on

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