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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  7. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. Have you settled on a ________________?
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. kid — child
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. shower — rain
  5. capital — a city
  6. bear — to put up with
  7. bear — the animal
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. bear — the animal
  10. band — a music group
  11. wind — moving air
  12. wind — moving air
  13. band — a ring
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. date — the fruit
  18. kid — to tease
  19. last — final
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. last — finally
  23. last — to go on
  24. capital — money

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