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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: land · date · wind · squash · bulb · shower · wound · race

  1. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. I've got to change the light ________________.
  3. Have you settled on a ________________?
  4. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  5. The light ________________ burned out.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. bulb — for light
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. date — the fruit
  5. bulb — for light
  6. land — ground
  7. shower — to wash
  8. race — humankind
  9. wound — an injury
  10. race — the arms race
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. squash — to crush
  13. wind — moving air
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. bulb — of a plant
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. race — a contest
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. land — a country
  20. land — to come down
  21. squash — the sport
  22. wound — an injury
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. shower — rain

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