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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  3. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. current — of water
  3. current — electric
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. wake — before a funeral
  6. bat — the animal
  7. root — of a plant
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. wake — to stop sleeping
  10. cap — of ice
  11. wake — a trail
  12. root — the cause
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. cap — a lid
  15. hand — help
  16. cap — a hat
  17. kid — child
  18. hand — in cards
  19. current — happening now
  20. tear — from crying
  21. tear — from crying
  22. tear — to rip
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. root — of a word

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