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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 116 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: staff · shower · cold · spring · pound · scale · face · pop

  1. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. We're almost out of ________________.
  9. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. You don't need to ________________ round.
  20. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. staff — employees
  3. shower — to wash
  4. shower — rain
  5. staff — a stick
  6. cold — an illness
  7. scale — size or range
  8. pop — soda
  9. staff — employees
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. scale — in music
  12. spring — the season
  13. pop — music
  14. face — part of the head
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. pound — a weight
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. pop — to visit
  20. face — to confront
  21. face — to point toward
  22. pound — to hit hard
  23. cold — not warm
  24. spring — of water

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