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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 124 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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: wind · pit · kid · shower · degree · fall

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  17. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. pit — a hole
  3. shower — rain
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. degree — an amount
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. fall — to drop
  9. fall — the season
  10. wind — moving air
  11. kid — to tease
  12. shower — to wash
  13. degree — temperature
  14. fall — to drop
  15. degree — from a university
  16. pit — a fruit stone
  17. pit — in a race
  18. wind — moving air

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