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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. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  5. He works in a ________________ mill.
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. You don't need to ________________ round.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. We're almost out of ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. She's very handy with a ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. pop — music
  3. spring — of water
  4. saw — past of 'see'
  5. saw — the tool
  6. spell — magic
  7. drill — army training
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. hand — help
  10. pop — to visit
  11. hand — in cards
  12. drill — the tool
  13. file — a tool
  14. pop — soda
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. spell — a short time
  17. file — a document
  18. file — a line of people
  19. spring — a coil
  20. drill — a practice
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. spring — the season
  23. saw — the tool
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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