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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  6. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. The ________________ took off on time.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. Don't do anything ________________.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. How do you ________________ your surname?
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. False peace will not ________________.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. chest — of your body
  3. last — final
  4. shower — rain
  5. snap — to snap out of it
  6. rash — a series
  7. spell — magic
  8. plane — an aircraft
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. spell — a short time
  11. last — finally
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. rash — hasty
  14. game — a match
  15. spell — letters
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. plane — a tool
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. game — wild animals
  20. last — to go on
  21. chest — of your body
  22. shower — to wash
  23. chest — a box
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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