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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. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  21. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. That was ________________ to happen.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. squash — the sport
  3. snap — to click
  4. mine — for digging
  5. spell — letters
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. file — a line of people
  8. cell — in biology
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. squash — to crush
  11. spell — magic
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. spell — a short time
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. degree — an amount
  16. degree — from a university
  17. degree — temperature
  18. cell — a phone
  19. file — a tool
  20. bound — tied together
  21. bound — obliged
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. file — a document
  24. bound — certain

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