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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: shower · club · temple · kid · cold · safe · mate · clip

  1. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  7. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  8. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  9. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  12. When was this ________________ built?
  13. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. Have you found your soul ________________?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. safe — a strongbox
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. temple — a place of worship
  4. clip — to cut
  5. cold — not warm
  6. mate — a friend
  7. club — for golf
  8. club — for dancing
  9. safe — out of danger
  10. clip — for paper
  11. mate — to breed
  12. temple — a place of worship
  13. temple — side of the head
  14. shower — to wash
  15. kid — to tease
  16. mate — a partner
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. clip — a video
  19. cold — an illness
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. shower — rain
  22. safe — out of danger
  23. kid — child
  24. club — a group

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