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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  16. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  22. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. wound — an injury
  4. spell — letters
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. field — a subject
  7. bass — low music
  8. spell — a short time
  9. field — farmland
  10. hand — in cards
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. shower — rain
  13. bass — the instrument
  14. hand — help
  15. root — the cause
  16. hide — animal skin
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. wound — an injury
  19. hide — to keep secret
  20. field — for sport
  21. root — of a word
  22. root — of a plant
  23. spell — magic
  24. bass — the fish

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