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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. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. She's very handy with a ________________.
  7. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. bat — the animal
  3. last — finally
  4. net — after costs
  5. last — final
  6. saw — the tool
  7. saw — past of 'see'
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. last — to go on
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. kid — to tease
  13. wind — moving air
  14. kid — child
  15. spell — a short time
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. net — for catching
  19. perch — the fish
  20. saw — the tool
  21. spell — magic
  22. net — in sport
  23. wind — moving air
  24. perch — for a bird

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