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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. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. spell — letters
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. hand — in cards
  5. spell — magic
  6. snap — to click
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. capital — a city
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. spell — a short time
  11. capital — money
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. shower — to wash
  15. bear — the animal
  16. hand — help
  17. cold — not warm
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. cold — an illness
  21. shower — rain
  22. bear — the animal
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. bear — to put up with

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