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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: shower · season · fall · bat · root · kid · wind · pop

  1. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  3. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. Did you ________________ the meat?
  13. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  24. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. root — of a word
  3. pop — music
  4. bat — the animal
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. wind — moving air
  7. pop — to visit
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. shower — to wash
  10. fall — to drop
  11. pop — soda
  12. season — to add flavour
  13. root — of a plant
  14. shower — rain
  15. kid — child
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. season — of the year
  18. wind — moving air
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. fall — to drop
  21. kid — to tease
  22. fall — the season
  23. root — the cause
  24. season — in sport

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