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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 120 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. Did you ________________ the meat?
  9. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  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. shower — to wash
  2. kid — to tease
  3. ground — a position
  4. ground — the earth
  5. bat — the animal
  6. season — of the year
  7. ground — crushed
  8. season — to add flavour
  9. season — in sport
  10. shower — rain
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. wax — in the ear
  14. kid — child
  15. wax — for sculpting
  16. wound — an injury
  17. wax — to grow
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. wound — an injury
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. snap — to click
  23. bat — for baseball
  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