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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. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. hand — help
  3. spell — a short time
  4. spell — letters
  5. clip — a video
  6. clip — for paper
  7. hand — in cards
  8. clip — to cut
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. shower — to wash
  11. root — of a word
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. root — of a plant
  14. tube — the underground
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. shower — rain
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. tube — a container
  20. bat — the animal
  21. root — the cause
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. fan — to cool the air
  24. spell — magic

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