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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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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: cold · date · last · shower · straw · branch · wave · content

  1. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  2. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  3. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  17. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wave — a sudden rise
  2. branch — a division
  3. content — videos and posts
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. date — the fruit
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. last — finally
  8. wave — with your hand
  9. cold — an illness
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. shower — to wash
  12. branch — of a bank
  13. cold — not warm
  14. shower — rain
  15. content — happy
  16. branch — of a tree
  17. wave — of the sea
  18. last — final
  19. content — the amount
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. last — to go on
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. straw — dry grass

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