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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. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  12. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  13. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. drill — the tool
  3. net — in sport
  4. cue — a signal
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. capital — money
  7. drill — a practice
  8. cue — a hint
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. content — happy
  11. cue — for pool
  12. pit — in a race
  13. pit — a hole
  14. kid — to tease
  15. net — for catching
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. shower — rain
  18. capital — a city
  19. drill — army training
  20. content — the amount
  21. kid — child
  22. pit — a fruit stone
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. net — after costs

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