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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 asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  2. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  11. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  14. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — magic
  2. racket — a loud noise
  3. spell — letters
  4. snap — to click
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. march — the month
  9. degree — from a university
  10. track — to keep track
  11. prune — the fruit
  12. cold — not warm
  13. track — a path
  14. track — a song
  15. prune — to trim
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. degree — an amount
  18. prune — to trim
  19. march — music
  20. racket — for tennis
  21. degree — temperature
  22. racket — for tennis
  23. spell — a short time
  24. march — the month

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