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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  12. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  13. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. Have you settled on a ________________?
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. hand — in cards
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. scale — for weighing
  5. net — in sport
  6. shower — rain
  7. scale — in music
  8. scale — size or range
  9. wound — an injury
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. leaves — lets stay
  12. leaves — of a tree
  13. leaves — to go away
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. wound — an injury
  16. net — after costs
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. net — for catching
  20. shower — to wash
  21. hand — help
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. date — the fruit

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