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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: season · shower · cold · chest · pound · last · row · stick

  1. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  13. Did you ________________ the meat?
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  19. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  23. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. chest — of your body
  3. last — to go on
  4. pound — for dogs
  5. row — a line
  6. cold — not warm
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. last — final
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. shower — to wash
  12. pound — a weight
  13. season — to add flavour
  14. row — to paddle
  15. season — in sport
  16. shower — rain
  17. chest — of your body
  18. stick — a piece of wood
  19. stick — a piece of wood
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. chest — a box
  22. stick — to attach or keep to
  23. pound — to hit hard
  24. last — finally

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