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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. How do you ________________ your surname?
  9. Where did you ________________ them?
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. mug — a cup
  3. spell — magic
  4. content — happy
  5. spell — a short time
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. content — the amount
  8. spell — letters
  9. mug — to rob
  10. wound — an injury
  11. band — a ring
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. mug — a face
  14. wound — an injury
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. land — a country
  18. fork — a garden tool
  19. hand — in cards
  20. hand — help
  21. land — to come down
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. band — a music group
  24. fork — in a road

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