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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: cold · rash · arm · chest · shower · pitcher · branch · snap

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. Don't do anything ________________.
  10. My father caught me by the ________________.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  19. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  20. He is an ace ________________.
  21. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  22. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. cold — not warm
  3. chest — a box
  4. branch — of a bank
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. chest — of your body
  7. rash — a series
  8. snap — to click
  9. rash — hasty
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. branch — a division
  12. shower — rain
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. chest — of your body
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. pitcher — in baseball
  21. branch — of a tree
  22. arm — a part of something
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. cold — an illness

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