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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 116 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: wound · pitch · cold · fork · current · clip · shower · pop

  1. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  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. pop — music
  2. shower — to wash
  3. cold — an illness
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. clip — a video
  6. current — electric
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. fork — in a road
  9. clip — for paper
  10. pitch — completely
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. pop — to visit
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. clip — to cut
  16. cold — not warm
  17. wound — an injury
  18. pop — soda
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. current — happening now
  21. wound — an injury
  22. shower — rain
  23. current — of water
  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