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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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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: content · shower · hide · kick · fall · wound · stand · tube

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. I can't ________________ this cold.
  7. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  10. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  20. I'll be taking the ________________.
  21. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  22. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. fall — the season
  5. fall — to drop
  6. stand — to bear
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. wound — an injury
  9. hide — animal skin
  10. kick — with a leg
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. wound — an injury
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. tube — a container
  16. shower — rain
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. content — the amount
  19. kick — in football
  20. tube — the underground
  21. fall — to drop
  22. stand — on your feet
  23. shower — to wash
  24. stand — for spectators

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