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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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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: march · spring · mouse · cold · bay · pass · straw · shower

  1. My mare is ________________ in color.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  4. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  5. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bay — a horse colour
  2. shower — to wash
  3. mouse — for a computer
  4. bay — a part of the sea
  5. pass — to spend time
  6. spring — a coil
  7. mouse — the animal
  8. spring — the season
  9. march — music
  10. pass — to succeed
  11. shower — rain
  12. march — the month
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. cold — an illness
  15. spring — of water
  16. pass — a permit
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. bay — to keep at bay
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. march — the month
  21. mouse — the animal
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. cold — not warm
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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