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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. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The ________________ took off on time.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. drill — a practice
  5. spring — a coil
  6. plane — an aircraft
  7. cell — a phone
  8. drill — the tool
  9. kick — in football
  10. shower — rain
  11. kid — child
  12. wind — moving air
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. cell — in biology
  15. drill — army training
  16. kick — with a leg
  17. wind — moving air
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. spring — of water
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. plane — a tool
  23. spring — the season
  24. kid — to tease

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