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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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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: cold · shower · bowl · lash · capital · chest · mouse · prune

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  7. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  8. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  13. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  14. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. shower — to wash
  3. lash — a whip stroke
  4. cold — not warm
  5. prune — to trim
  6. bowl — to roll
  7. bowl — a football final
  8. mouse — the animal
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. capital — money
  12. lash — to lash out
  13. mouse — for a computer
  14. lash — an eyelash
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. prune — to trim
  17. cold — an illness
  18. mouse — the animal
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. bowl — a dish
  21. chest — of your body
  22. chest — a box
  23. shower — rain
  24. capital — a city

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