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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: content · board · shower · wind · wound · pit · bat · kid

  1. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  8. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. board — a flat piece
  3. kid — to tease
  4. wound — an injury
  5. bat — the animal
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. board — to get on
  8. board — a committee
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. shower — rain
  11. pit — a fruit stone
  12. content — the amount
  13. shower — to wash
  14. pit — in a race
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. kid — child
  19. wind — moving air
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. content — happy
  22. pit — a hole
  23. wound — an injury
  24. wind — moving air

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