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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: wound · kid · lie · cold · chair · shower · net · chip

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. wound — an injury
  3. lie — to recline
  4. chair — a leader
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. lie — an untruth
  7. shower — to wash
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. cold — an illness
  10. wound — an injury
  11. chip — for betting
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. shower — rain
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. cold — not warm
  17. net — after costs
  18. net — for catching
  19. chip — to eat
  20. kid — child
  21. chip — in a computer
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. net — in sport
  24. lie — an untruth

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