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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: bear · shower · fall · pitcher · capital · hand · net · kid

  1. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. shower — rain
  2. net — for catching
  3. net — in sport
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. hand — in cards
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. kid — to tease
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. bear — the animal
  11. hand — help
  12. capital — money
  13. fall — to drop
  14. shower — to wash
  15. bear — the animal
  16. fall — to drop
  17. bear — to put up with
  18. kid — child
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. fall — the season
  21. capital — a city
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. net — after costs

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