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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: mine · club · shower · patient · wound · lash · cold · stem

  1. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  5. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  6. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  18. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  19. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  20. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  21. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  22. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. 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 — rain
  2. patient — calm and waiting
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. patient — a sick person
  5. stem — a stem cell
  6. club — a group
  7. cold — not warm
  8. stem — to come from
  9. lash — a whip stroke
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. cold — an illness
  12. wound — an injury
  13. mine — for digging
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. shower — to wash
  17. club — for dancing
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. club — for golf
  20. lash — an eyelash
  21. lash — to lash out
  22. stem — of a plant
  23. wound — an injury
  24. 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