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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 a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. She's very handy with a ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  23. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. lie — to recline
  4. row — a line
  5. row — to paddle
  6. spell — letters
  7. spell — a short time
  8. tear — to rip
  9. tear — from crying
  10. tear — from crying
  11. saw — the tool
  12. saw — the tool
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. spell — magic
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. hand — help
  18. shower — rain
  19. hand — in cards
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. kid — to tease
  22. lie — an untruth
  23. lie — an untruth
  24. kid — child

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