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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: file · shower · cell · foot · mark · hand · cold · present

  1. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  5. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  6. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — to pay attention
  2. foot — part of the body
  3. shower — to wash
  4. foot — a measure
  5. file — a document
  6. mark — a trace
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. present — a gift
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. cold — not warm
  12. file — a tool
  13. mark — a grade
  14. shower — rain
  15. cell — in biology
  16. hand — help
  17. hand — in cards
  18. present — the time now
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. foot — the bottom
  21. cell — a phone
  22. present — there
  23. file — a line of people
  24. cold — an illness

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