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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 116 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 asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  23. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — magic
  2. land — to come down
  3. stock — shares
  4. row — a line
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. spell — letters
  7. land — ground
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. bat — the animal
  10. rule — government
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. rule — a law
  14. snap — to click
  15. spell — a short time
  16. stock — goods
  17. row — to paddle
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. bark — to shout
  23. stock — a soup base
  24. land — a country

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