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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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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. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  3. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  4. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. dip — a sauce
  3. leaves — to go away
  4. leaves — lets stay
  5. net — for catching
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. tear — from crying
  8. tear — from crying
  9. dip — to dunk
  10. kid — child
  11. leaves — of a tree
  12. kid — to tease
  13. game — a match
  14. net — in sport
  15. row — to paddle
  16. game — wild animals
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. tear — to rip
  19. row — a line
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. net — after costs
  22. dip — to sink
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. shower — rain

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