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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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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 · snap · wind · rest · band · prune · chair · fan

  1. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  16. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  17. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. prune — to trim
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. shower — to wash
  5. chair — a leader
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. band — a ring
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. snap — to speak sharply
  13. wind — moving air
  14. shower — rain
  15. fan — to cool the air
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. rest — what's left
  18. rest — what's left
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. band — a music group
  22. rest — a break
  23. wind — moving air
  24. prune — to trim

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