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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: shower · calf · game · cold · kid · root · chest · firm

  1. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  9. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  10. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  11. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  12. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — a company
  2. shower — to wash
  3. firm — steady
  4. game — a match
  5. kid — to tease
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cold — an illness
  8. firm — decided
  9. calf — a young animal
  10. calf — a young animal
  11. root — of a plant
  12. calf — of the leg
  13. kid — child
  14. cold — not warm
  15. game — wild animals
  16. root — of a word
  17. shower — rain
  18. chest — a box
  19. chest — of your body
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. chest — of your body
  22. root — the cause
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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