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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  5. Did you ________________ the meat?
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. Have you met the new head ________________?
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. wound — an injury
  4. season — in sport
  5. season — to add flavour
  6. spell — a short time
  7. wound — an injury
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. season — of the year
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. spell — letters
  12. cold — an illness
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. cold — not warm
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. spell — magic
  18. coach — pulled by horses

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