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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: mine · nail · patient · temple · shower · bat · pound · kid

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. When was this ________________ built?
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  5. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  8. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  16. The ________________ went through the wall.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  21. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  22. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. temple — a place of worship
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. nail — on a finger
  5. nail — for a hammer
  6. mine — for digging
  7. pound — a weight
  8. pound — for dogs
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. temple — side of the head
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. kid — child
  13. shower — to wash
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. shower — rain
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. patient — a sick person
  21. temple — a place of worship
  22. patient — calm and waiting
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. bat — the animal

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