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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: shower · straw · cue · march · mine · court · fall · patient

  1. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  9. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  22. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. march — the month
  3. shower — to wash
  4. shower — rain
  5. march — the month
  6. march — music
  7. court — of a king
  8. cue — a signal
  9. cue — a hint
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. mine — for digging
  12. fall — to drop
  13. court — for sport
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. patient — calm and waiting
  16. court — of law
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. cue — for pool
  19. fall — to drop
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. fall — the season
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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