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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. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Have you settled on a ________________?
  7. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  8. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  13. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  14. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  19. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. cold — not warm
  6. date — on the calendar
  7. wake — before a funeral
  8. bore — gave birth
  9. kid — to tease
  10. bore — to drill
  11. shower — rain
  12. bore — to tire
  13. net — after costs
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. kid — child
  17. net — in sport
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. date — the fruit
  20. shower — to wash
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. net — for catching
  23. wake — a trail
  24. cold — an illness

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