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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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  20. That must've been a ________________.
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. shower — to wash
  4. ball — a dance
  5. bat — the animal
  6. rush — hurry
  7. tube — a container
  8. shower — rain
  9. tube — the underground
  10. sharp — clever
  11. kid — to tease
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. ball — a round shape
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. ball — a great time
  16. kid — child
  17. rush — to hurry
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. sharp — with an edge
  20. rush — a thrill
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. wound — an injury
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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