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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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Word bank
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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 · cell · kid · cold · pound · shower

  1. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — a weight
  2. wind — moving air
  3. cell — a phone
  4. kid — to tease
  5. shower — to wash
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. shower — rain
  9. kid — child
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. cold — not warm
  12. wind — moving air
  13. pound — for dogs
  14. cell — in biology
  15. pound — to hit hard
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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