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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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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: shower · capital · calf · bat · spell · tear · straw · wound

  1. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  2. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — to rip
  2. calf — of the leg
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. spell — letters
  6. tear — from crying
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. tear — from crying
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. wound — an injury
  15. capital — money
  16. bat — the animal
  17. shower — to wash
  18. spell — a short time
  19. shower — rain
  20. capital — a city
  21. wound — an injury
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. calf — a young animal
  24. spell — magic

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