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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. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  5. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The ________________ took off on time.
  10. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  23. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — high quality
  2. rock — music
  3. land — ground
  4. rock — to move gently
  5. plane — a tool
  6. land — a country
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. cold — an illness
  9. plane — an aircraft
  10. trunk — of a car
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. land — to come down
  13. shower — to wash
  14. trunk — of a tree
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. shower — rain
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. fine — all right
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. fine — a penalty
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. rock — a stone
  23. plane — in geometry
  24. cold — not warm

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