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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: cell · land · shower · nail · chip · spring · band · row

  1. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  9. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The ________________ went through the wall.
  15. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — to paddle
  2. shower — to wash
  3. spring — the season
  4. cell — a phone
  5. land — to come down
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. band — a music group
  9. chip — for betting
  10. band — a ring
  11. cell — in biology
  12. nail — on a finger
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. chip — to eat
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. chip — in a computer
  18. row — a line
  19. spring — a coil
  20. land — ground
  21. land — a country
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. shower — rain
  24. spring — of water

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