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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 120 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.

Words on the sheet
468
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 · clip · fan · bowl · drill · chest · net

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  8. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. He took the fish out of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. straw — to clutch at straws
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. clip — a video
  5. net — in sport
  6. net — after costs
  7. bowl — a football final
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. clip — to cut
  10. drill — army training
  11. shower — to wash
  12. clip — for paper
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. chest — of your body
  15. bowl — a dish
  16. drill — a practice
  17. drill — the tool
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. chest — of your body
  20. bowl — to roll
  21. chest — a box
  22. shower — rain
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. net — for catching

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