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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: chest · shower · date · cold · degree · fan · band · stock

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  7. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  8. The ________________ market has crashed.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  18. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cold — an illness
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. stock — goods
  7. date — the fruit
  8. stock — shares
  9. shower — rain
  10. chest — of your body
  11. chest — a box
  12. chest — of your body
  13. shower — to wash
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. degree — from a university
  16. band — a ring
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. degree — an amount
  20. stock — a soup base
  21. degree — temperature
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. band — a music group
  24. band — a rubber band

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