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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.

Make a worksheet

Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

Words on the sheet
468
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: shower · cold · rash · chair · coach · wound · clip · face

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. Don't do anything ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  20. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  21. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  22. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. clip — to cut
  3. clip — a video
  4. face — to point toward
  5. cold — not warm
  6. wound — an injury
  7. rash — hasty
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. rash — a series
  14. shower — rain
  15. cold — an illness
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. wound — an injury
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. face — to confront
  21. coach — pulled by horses
  22. chair — a leader
  23. clip — for paper
  24. face — part of the head

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