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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  8. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. I'll be taking the ________________.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  24. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. object — an aim
  3. drill — army training
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. spring — a coil
  6. clip — for paper
  7. kick — with a leg
  8. spell — magic
  9. spring — of water
  10. kick — in football
  11. shower — rain
  12. clip — a video
  13. spell — letters
  14. object — to protest
  15. spell — a short time
  16. tube — the underground
  17. drill — the tool
  18. drill — a practice
  19. clip — to cut
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. tube — a container
  22. spring — the season
  23. object — a thing
  24. tube — in a tire

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