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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: tear · kid · tube · row · date · racket · cold · fan

  1. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. I'll be taking the ________________.
  9. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  20. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?

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 — child
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. row — a line
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. row — to paddle
  8. tube — the underground
  9. tube — a container
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. fan — to cool the air
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. tear — from crying
  14. kid — to tease
  15. cold — an illness
  16. racket — for tennis
  17. date — the fruit
  18. cold — not warm
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. racket — a loud noise
  21. tear — from crying
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. tear — to rip
  24. date — on the calendar

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