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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 120 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: bat · shower · cold · content · club · saw · tear · temple

  1. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. When was this ________________ built?
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  9. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. He works in a ________________ mill.
  20. She's very handy with a ________________.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. shower — rain
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — not warm
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. club — for golf
  9. temple — side of the head
  10. bat — the animal
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. shower — to wash
  13. tear — from crying
  14. tear — from crying
  15. cold — an illness
  16. temple — a place of worship
  17. tear — to rip
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. saw — the tool
  20. saw — the tool
  21. content — happy
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. content — the amount
  24. club — a group

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