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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. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. Have you met the new head ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. shower — a meteor shower
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. clip — to cut
  4. spell — letters
  5. land — ground
  6. land — to come down
  7. clip — for paper
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. shower — rain
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. content — happy
  12. cold — not warm
  13. spell — a short time
  14. coach — pulled by horses
  15. clip — a video
  16. content — the amount
  17. shower — to wash
  18. chair — a leader
  19. cold — an illness
  20. chair — a professorship
  21. spell — magic
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. land — a country
  24. coach — a trainer

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