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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. The ________________ took off on time.
  4. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. shower — to wash
  3. plane — an aircraft
  4. wound — past of 'wind'
  5. kid — child
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. spell — magic
  8. plane — in geometry
  9. drill — the tool
  10. kid — to tease
  11. drill — army training
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. shower — rain
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. drill — a practice
  16. wound — an injury
  17. wound — an injury
  18. cold — an illness
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. spell — letters
  21. plane — a tool
  22. bat — the animal
  23. cold — not warm
  24. spell — a short time

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