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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. spell — letters
  3. tear — from crying
  4. row — to paddle
  5. land — ground
  6. wake — to stop sleeping
  7. land — a country
  8. tear — from crying
  9. spell — magic
  10. rest — what's left
  11. wake — a trail
  12. kid — to tease
  13. spell — a short time
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. rest — what's left
  16. land — to come down
  17. field — a subject
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. tear — to rip
  20. rest — a break
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. row — a line
  23. field — for sport
  24. field — farmland

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