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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: shower · cue · file · fall · cold · court · pop · degree

  1. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  2. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — music
  2. file — a document
  3. fall — to drop
  4. degree — from a university
  5. shower — to wash
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. court — for sport
  8. fall — to drop
  9. court — of a king
  10. court — of law
  11. file — a line of people
  12. fall — the season
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. cue — a signal
  15. file — a tool
  16. degree — temperature
  17. pop — to visit
  18. pop — soda
  19. cold — an illness
  20. degree — an amount
  21. shower — rain
  22. cue — a hint
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cue — for pool

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