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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 · trunk · cold · bass · date · leaves · fall · scale

  1. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. Have you settled on a ________________?
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  19. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  20. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  21. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  22. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  23. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. cold — an illness
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. shower — rain
  5. date — on the calendar
  6. bass — low music
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. scale — for weighing
  9. cold — not warm
  10. leaves — lets stay
  11. bass — the fish
  12. fall — the season
  13. scale — in music
  14. scale — size or range
  15. fall — to drop
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. shower — to wash
  18. leaves — of a tree
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. leaves — to go away
  21. trunk — of an elephant
  22. date — the fruit
  23. trunk — of a car
  24. cold — the Cold War

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