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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: drill · cold · rule · spring · shower · branch · pound · date

  1. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  7. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Have you settled on a ________________?
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  24. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?

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

Answer key

  1. pound — for dogs
  2. cold — an illness
  3. drill — a practice
  4. pound — a weight
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. date — on the calendar
  7. rule — to rule out
  8. shower — to wash
  9. cold — not warm
  10. spring — of water
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. branch — a division
  14. spring — the season
  15. pound — to hit hard
  16. shower — rain
  17. rule — a law
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. drill — army training
  20. spring — a coil
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. drill — the tool
  23. date — the fruit
  24. rule — government

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