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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: kid · tear · date · file · pound · wind

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. Have you settled on a ________________?
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  9. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. tear — from crying
  3. date — on the calendar
  4. kid — child
  5. file — a line of people
  6. tear — to rip
  7. wind — moving air
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. pound — for dogs
  10. tear — from crying
  11. pound — to hit hard
  12. wind — moving air
  13. pound — a weight
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. file — a tool
  16. file — a document
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. date — the fruit

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