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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 124 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. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  7. The King held a masked ________________.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. Did you ________________ the meat?

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. shower — rain
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. ground — a position
  5. land — ground
  6. season — in sport
  7. ball — a dance
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. ball — a great time
  10. cold — an illness
  11. sharp — clever
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. ground — the earth
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. shower — to wash
  16. ball — a round shape
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. land — a country
  20. land — to come down
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. season — of the year
  24. season — to add flavour

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