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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: kid · fall · stand · cold · bat · bark · perch · shower

  1. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. I can't ________________ this cold.
  13. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — a dog's sound
  2. shower — to wash
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. shower — rain
  6. stand — for spectators
  7. kid — to tease
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. fall — to drop
  10. kid — child
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. stand — to bear
  13. stand — on your feet
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. cold — not warm
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. perch — the fish
  19. bark — to shout
  20. cold — an illness
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. fall — the season
  23. bat — the animal
  24. fall — to drop

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