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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 · swing · rule · land · roll · cold · jam · wind

  1. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  2. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  3. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  7. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  23. We're on a ________________ here.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. jam — a tight spot
  2. rule — government
  3. rule — a law
  4. roll — a list
  5. land — ground
  6. jam — to spread on bread
  7. rule — to rule out
  8. wind — moving air
  9. swing — in golf
  10. swing — to play on
  11. cold — not warm
  12. wind — moving air
  13. roll — a cake
  14. swing — music
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. shower — to wash
  18. shower — rain
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. land — to come down
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. jam — in traffic
  23. roll — on a roll
  24. land — a country

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