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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: cold · kid · fall · leaves · bat · shower · swing · root

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  6. David sat on the ________________.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  14. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. bat — the animal
  3. fall — to drop
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. root — of a word
  6. swing — to play on
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. fall — to drop
  10. kid — to tease
  11. shower — rain
  12. fall — the season
  13. leaves — to go away
  14. leaves — of a tree
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. root — the cause
  17. swing — in golf
  18. kid — child
  19. cold — not warm
  20. swing — music
  21. leaves — lets stay
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. shower — to wash
  24. root — of a plant

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