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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. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  7. Don't do anything ________________.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. My father caught me by the ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  17. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. shower — rain
  3. bass — low music
  4. spell — magic
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. rash — on the skin
  7. rash — hasty
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. prune — to trim
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. cold — an illness
  12. prune — to trim
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. rash — a series
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. arm — a part of something
  17. bass — the fish
  18. spell — letters
  19. mine — for digging
  20. cold — not warm
  21. shower — to wash
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. spell — a short time
  24. mine — belonging to me

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