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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. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The ________________ took off on time.
  11. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  12. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  17. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — a stone
  2. rock — music
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. cold — an illness
  5. plane — a tool
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. land — ground
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. plane — an aircraft
  11. track — a path
  12. snap — to click
  13. shower — to wash
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. shower — rain
  16. track — to keep track
  17. track — a song
  18. land — a country
  19. bat — the animal
  20. rock — to move gently
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. land — to come down
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. bat — in an idiom

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