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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  12. He is an ace ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. My father caught me by the ________________.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. kid — child
  3. land — ground
  4. arm — a part of something
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. spring — of water
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. kid — to tease
  10. shower — to wash
  11. arm — part of the body
  12. pitcher — in baseball
  13. spring — the season
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. spring — a coil
  16. sharp — clever
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. arm — part of the body
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. land — a country
  22. shower — rain
  23. mine — for digging
  24. pitcher — a jug

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