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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: shower · ball · season · cold · spring · pitch · dip · leaves

  1. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  3. Did you ________________ the meat?
  4. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  8. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  11. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  14. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  15. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  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. spring — of water
  2. dip — to sink
  3. season — to add flavour
  4. pitch — completely
  5. spring — the season
  6. shower — rain
  7. dip — a sauce
  8. ball — a great time
  9. ball — a dance
  10. leaves — lets stay
  11. ball — a round shape
  12. shower — to wash
  13. season — of the year
  14. leaves — to go away
  15. dip — to dunk
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. leaves — of a tree
  18. cold — an illness
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. cold — not warm
  21. season — in sport
  22. spring — a coil
  23. cold — the Cold War
  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