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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: bat · bark · tear · chair · kid · shower · rock · content

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  11. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. tear — from crying
  6. shower — rain
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. bat — the animal
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. rock — music
  11. rock — to move gently
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. chair — a leader
  15. bark — to shout
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. rock — a stone
  18. shower — to wash
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. kid — child
  21. content — happy
  22. content — the amount
  23. tear — to rip
  24. tear — from crying

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