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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. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. How do you ________________ your surname?
  9. Did you ________________ the meat?
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  21. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. season — in sport
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. cold — an illness
  6. foot — a measure
  7. mine — for digging
  8. spell — letters
  9. season — to add flavour
  10. shower — rain
  11. foot — part of the body
  12. spell — magic
  13. shower — to wash
  14. root — of a plant
  15. root — the cause
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. season — of the year
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. spell — a short time
  20. rash — a series
  21. foot — the bottom
  22. cold — not warm
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. root — of a word

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