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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 116 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: bore · track · shower · kid · fall · cold · mate · squash

  1. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  4. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  5. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  8. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  18. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. kid — to tease
  3. bore — to tire
  4. track — a path
  5. bore — gave birth
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. mate — to breed
  8. squash — to crush
  9. shower — to wash
  10. squash — the sport
  11. mate — a partner
  12. bore — to drill
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. cold — an illness
  15. shower — rain
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. track — a song
  18. mate — a friend
  19. kid — child
  20. fall — to drop
  21. cold — not warm
  22. track — to keep track
  23. fall — the season
  24. fall — to drop

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