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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. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — to lash out
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. spell — magic
  4. hand — help
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. spell — a short time
  7. lash — a whip stroke
  8. wound — an injury
  9. shower — to wash
  10. game — wild animals
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. spell — letters
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. content — happy
  16. shower — rain
  17. game — a match
  18. hand — in cards
  19. march — the month
  20. wound — an injury
  21. content — the amount
  22. march — the month
  23. lash — an eyelash
  24. march — music

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