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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.

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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: chest · perch · shower · band · cold · swing · plane · court

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  6. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  7. The ________________ took off on time.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. shower — to wash
  3. band — a music group
  4. swing — music
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. plane — in geometry
  7. plane — an aircraft
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. court — of law
  10. chest — of your body
  11. plane — a tool
  12. perch — the fish
  13. court — for sport
  14. swing — to play on
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. chest — of your body
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. chest — a box
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. court — of a king
  21. swing — in golf
  22. cold — an illness
  23. shower — rain
  24. band — a ring

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