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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.

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 · sharp · band · content · racket · land · wound · cold

  1. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. sharp — clever
  3. racket — a loud noise
  4. cold — not warm
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. content — the amount
  7. cold — an illness
  8. racket — for tennis
  9. wound — an injury
  10. shower — rain
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. racket — for tennis
  13. content — happy
  14. band — a music group
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. land — to come down
  17. wound — an injury
  18. land — a country
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. band — a ring
  21. sharp — with an edge
  22. shower — to wash
  23. land — ground
  24. content — videos and posts

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