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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. He is an ace ________________.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. land — ground
  3. bass — low music
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. cap — of ice
  7. bass — the fish
  8. prune — to trim
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. spell — magic
  11. march — music
  12. march — the month
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. march — the month
  15. pitcher — in baseball
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. cap — a hat
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. prune — to trim
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. land — to come down
  22. cap — a lid
  23. spell — a short time
  24. land — a country

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