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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. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. Don't do anything ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — on the skin
  2. spell — magic
  3. spell — letters
  4. game — a match
  5. land — to come down
  6. land — a country
  7. game — wild animals
  8. clip — for paper
  9. snap — to click
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. clip — a video
  12. cap — of ice
  13. rash — a series
  14. clip — to cut
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. bat — the animal
  18. cap — a hat
  19. spell — a short time
  20. land — ground
  21. cap — a lid
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. rash — hasty

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