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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. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  4. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  5. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  13. Have you found your soul ________________?
  14. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. Did you ________________ the meat?
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. shower — to wash
  3. season — in sport
  4. pound — for dogs
  5. mate — a friend
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. wake — a trail
  8. pound — to hit hard
  9. game — a match
  10. wake — to stop sleeping
  11. wound — an injury
  12. pound — a weight
  13. mate — a partner
  14. mate — to breed
  15. shower — rain
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. wake — before a funeral
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. wound — an injury
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. season — to add flavour
  24. game — wild animals

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