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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: cold · spring · tube · last · ball · bowl · shower · fall

  1. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  8. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  24. I'll be taking the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. spring — a coil
  3. cold — an illness
  4. ball — a great time
  5. fall — to drop
  6. last — to go on
  7. tube — in a tire
  8. fall — the season
  9. shower — to wash
  10. bowl — a football final
  11. last — finally
  12. tube — a container
  13. spring — of water
  14. spring — the season
  15. fall — to drop
  16. shower — rain
  17. cold — not warm
  18. ball — a dance
  19. last — final
  20. ball — a round shape
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. bowl — a dish
  24. tube — the underground

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