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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 120 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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. spring — of water
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. ground — the earth
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. land — a country
  7. dip — to sink
  8. spring — a coil
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. snap — to click
  11. dip — a sauce
  12. chair — a leader
  13. dip — to dunk
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. ground — a position
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. spring — the season
  19. land — to come down
  20. shower — rain
  21. perch — the fish
  22. shower — to wash
  23. ground — crushed
  24. perch — for a bird

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