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

  1. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  8. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  13. It's one o'clock ________________.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  23. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — magic
  2. cold — not warm
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. spell — letters
  6. land — ground
  7. pass — to succeed
  8. pass — a permit
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. spell — a short time
  11. shower — to wash
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. sharp — exactly
  14. sharp — clever
  15. cold — an illness
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. land — to come down
  19. perch — the fish
  20. land — a country
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. pass — to spend time
  23. patient — calm and waiting
  24. shower — rain

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