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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: chest · race · band · cold · date · wake · shower · fan

  1. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. Have you settled on a ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. date — the fruit
  3. race — a contest
  4. shower — to wash
  5. shower — rain
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. band — a music group
  8. race — the arms race
  9. date — on the calendar
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. wake — to stop sleeping
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. band — a ring
  14. chest — of your body
  15. chest — of your body
  16. fan — to cool the air
  17. cold — an illness
  18. wake — a trail
  19. chest — a box
  20. cold — not warm
  21. race — humankind
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. date — on the calendar

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