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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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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. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  19. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — a short time
  2. rash — hasty
  3. wind — moving air
  4. bat — the animal
  5. chip — to eat
  6. wind — moving air
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. march — the month
  10. clip — to cut
  11. march — music
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. spell — letters
  14. clip — a video
  15. rash — a series
  16. chip — in a computer
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. chip — for betting
  19. rash — on the skin
  20. mine — for digging
  21. clip — for paper
  22. march — the month
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. spell — magic

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