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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
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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: fan · cold · snap · mine · shower · bass · chest · chair

  1. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  20. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. I play ________________ in a jazz band.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — rain
  2. mine — for digging
  3. bass — low music
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. chest — a box
  6. chair — a leader
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. cold — not warm
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. shower — to wash
  11. chair — to sit on
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. fan — to cool the air
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. chest — of your body
  17. snap — to click
  18. chest — of your body
  19. bass — the fish
  20. fan — a supporter
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. bass — the instrument

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