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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. kid — to tease
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. kid — child
  7. hand — help
  8. band — a ring
  9. ground — crushed
  10. spell — letters
  11. spell — a short time
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. hand — in cards
  15. ground — the earth
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. shower — rain
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. spell — magic
  21. shower — to wash
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. band — a music group
  24. ground — a position

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