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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: date · shower · pop · bulb · lash · clip · club · bat

  1. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  2. I've got to change the light ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  4. You don't need to ________________ round.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  10. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  13. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. We're almost out of ________________.
  18. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  19. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. The light ________________ burned out.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. date — on the calendar
  2. bulb — for light
  3. lash — to lash out
  4. pop — to visit
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. clip — to cut
  7. club — a group
  8. shower — to wash
  9. date — the fruit
  10. club — for golf
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. lash — an eyelash
  13. club — for dancing
  14. clip — for paper
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. pop — soda
  18. bulb — of a plant
  19. pop — music
  20. clip — a video
  21. bulb — for light
  22. bat — the animal
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. shower — rain

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