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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: last · clip · shower · pit · date · cold · drill · rash

  1. Have you settled on a ________________?
  2. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. date — on the calendar
  2. pit — a fruit stone
  3. rash — hasty
  4. pit — a hole
  5. cold — not warm
  6. clip — a video
  7. clip — for paper
  8. drill — a practice
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. pit — in a race
  11. rash — a series
  12. rash — on the skin
  13. drill — the tool
  14. drill — army training
  15. last — finally
  16. date — the fruit
  17. shower — rain
  18. shower — to wash
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. clip — to cut
  21. last — to go on
  22. cold — an illness
  23. last — final
  24. cold — the Cold War

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