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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: pitcher · shower · saw · mine · roll · kid · cold · straw

  1. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. We're on a ________________ here.
  3. She's very handy with a ________________.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. He works in a ________________ mill.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. roll — on a roll
  3. saw — the tool
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. saw — the tool
  6. shower — rain
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. kid — child
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — not warm
  12. shower — to wash
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. roll — a list
  16. mine — for digging
  17. saw — past of 'see'
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. kid — to tease
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. roll — a cake

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