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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  6. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  7. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  21. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. shower — rain
  3. lash — a whip stroke
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. bass — the fish
  6. cap — of ice
  7. lash — an eyelash
  8. court — of law
  9. lash — to lash out
  10. shower — to wash
  11. cap — a lid
  12. clip — for paper
  13. court — of a king
  14. spell — letters
  15. spell — magic
  16. field — a subject
  17. cap — a hat
  18. court — for sport
  19. clip — to cut
  20. bass — low music
  21. bass — the instrument
  22. field — for sport
  23. clip — a video
  24. spell — a short time

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