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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. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  6. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. I'll be taking the ________________.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — before a funeral
  2. spell — magic
  3. craft — a skill
  4. game — wild animals
  5. craft — a handicraft
  6. wake — a trail
  7. spell — letters
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. game — a match
  11. tube — the underground
  12. chest — of your body
  13. spell — a short time
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. wound — an injury
  16. tube — in a tire
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. tube — a container
  19. wound — an injury
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. chest — a box
  23. chest — of your body
  24. craft — boats

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