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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. Where did you ________________ them?
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  22. There's no middle ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. shower — rain
  3. ground — crushed
  4. march — the month
  5. mug — a face
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. game — wild animals
  8. shower — to wash
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. mug — to rob
  11. march — music
  12. game — a match
  13. clip — for paper
  14. clip — to cut
  15. clip — a video
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. hand — in cards
  18. march — the month
  19. stem — to come from
  20. ground — the earth
  21. mug — a cup
  22. ground — a position
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. hand — help

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