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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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Word bank
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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 · mine · scale · hand · nail · race · bat · rash

  1. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. The ________________ went through the wall.
  10. Don't do anything ________________.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. bat — the animal
  4. race — the arms race
  5. race — a contest
  6. hand — help
  7. scale — size or range
  8. mine — for digging
  9. nail — for a hammer
  10. rash — hasty
  11. shower — rain
  12. nail — on a finger
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. rash — a series
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. rash — on the skin
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. hand — in cards
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. shower — to wash
  22. scale — in music
  23. race — humankind
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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