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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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468
Word bank
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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. clip — to cut
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. stick — to attach or keep to
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. stick — a piece of wood
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. fan — to cool the air
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. tear — from crying
  11. fall — to drop
  12. shower — rain
  13. tear — to rip
  14. fall — to drop
  15. tear — from crying
  16. mine — for digging
  17. kid — to tease
  18. clip — a video
  19. clip — for paper
  20. fall — the season
  21. shower — to wash
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. stick — a piece of wood

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