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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 strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  14. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. bat — the animal
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. spell — letters
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. stick — to attach or keep to
  8. row — a line
  9. row — to paddle
  10. stick — a piece of wood
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. wound — an injury
  13. bass — the instrument
  14. bass — the fish
  15. spell — magic
  16. bass — low music
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. hand — in cards
  20. wound — an injury
  21. wind — moving air
  22. hand — help
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. spell — a short time

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