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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 120 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: prune · chair · shower · bore · tube · temple · cold · arm

  1. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. When was this ________________ built?
  12. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  13. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. cold — not warm
  3. bore — gave birth
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. tube — the underground
  6. temple — side of the head
  7. prune — to trim
  8. chair — a leader
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. tube — a container
  11. temple — a place of worship
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. temple — a place of worship
  14. shower — rain
  15. prune — to trim
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. bore — to tire
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. chair — a professorship
  21. shower — to wash
  22. arm — a part of something
  23. cold — an illness
  24. bore — to drill

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