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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: pit · bulb · mine · cell · hand · cold · shower · content

  1. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  2. I've got to change the light ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. The light ________________ burned out.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.

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

Answer key

  1. bulb — of a plant
  2. bulb — for light
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cell — in biology
  5. shower — rain
  6. cell — a phone
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. shower — to wash
  9. content — happy
  10. hand — help
  11. bulb — for light
  12. content — the amount
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. pit — a hole
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. pit — a fruit stone
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. hand — in cards
  20. mine — for digging
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. cold — an illness
  24. pit — in a race

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