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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 120 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: present · kid · ruler · shower · hand · cold · tube · pitch

  1. I'll be taking the ________________.
  2. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  16. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  17. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  20. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — the underground
  2. present — the time now
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. present — a gift
  6. cold — not warm
  7. shower — to wash
  8. cold — an illness
  9. pitch — a sales talk
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. ruler — for measuring
  12. kid — child
  13. tube — in a tire
  14. kid — to tease
  15. pitch — a sports field
  16. tube — a container
  17. ruler — a monarch
  18. hand — help
  19. ruler — for measuring
  20. present — there
  21. hand — in cards
  22. pitch — completely
  23. shower — rain
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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