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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 116 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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. saw — the tool
  3. snap — to click
  4. deal — a big deal
  5. band — a ring
  6. shower — to wash
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. cold — an illness
  9. deal — to handle
  10. spell — letters
  11. saw — the tool
  12. deal — an agreement
  13. shower — rain
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. band — a music group
  16. spell — a short time
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. cold — not warm
  19. content — the amount
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. spell — magic
  22. content — happy
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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