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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: shower · wave · game · chair · kid · bark · mate · rash

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  9. Have you found your soul ________________?
  10. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. Don't do anything ________________.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  20. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. mate — a friend
  3. shower — to wash
  4. rash — on the skin
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. game — a match
  7. chair — a leader
  8. wave — a sudden rise
  9. mate — a partner
  10. wave — of the sea
  11. kid — to tease
  12. shower — rain
  13. rash — hasty
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. kid — child
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. wave — with your hand
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. mate — to breed
  20. rash — a series
  21. bark — to shout
  22. game — wild animals
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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