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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.

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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: craft · shower · staff · lie · cold · kick · wound · spring

  1. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  4. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  16. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  22. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The old man leaned on his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — boats
  2. cold — an illness
  3. craft — a handicraft
  4. lie — an untruth
  5. spring — a coil
  6. cold — not warm
  7. spring — the season
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. staff — employees
  10. spring — of water
  11. kick — with a leg
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. craft — a skill
  14. shower — to wash
  15. lie — an untruth
  16. kick — in football
  17. wound — an injury
  18. lie — to recline
  19. wound — an injury
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. staff — employees
  22. kick — a thrill
  23. shower — rain
  24. staff — a stick

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