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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: scale · clip · shower · ground · temple · row · tube · net

  1. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  2. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  5. When was this ________________ built?
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — side of the head
  2. tube — a container
  3. net — after costs
  4. temple — a place of worship
  5. temple — a place of worship
  6. clip — for paper
  7. tube — the underground
  8. shower — rain
  9. clip — to cut
  10. net — in sport
  11. ground — the earth
  12. net — for catching
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. ground — crushed
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. ground — a position
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. clip — a video
  19. row — to paddle
  20. row — a line
  21. shower — to wash
  22. scale — in music
  23. tube — in a tire
  24. scale — size or range

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