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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. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  5. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. He works in a ________________ mill.
  8. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. She's very handy with a ________________.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. The ________________ took off on time.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. spell — letters
  3. bass — low music
  4. saw — past of 'see'
  5. plane — in geometry
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. saw — the tool
  8. bass — the instrument
  9. shower — to wash
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. spell — magic
  12. saw — the tool
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. last — to go on
  15. spell — a short time
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. last — final
  18. plane — an aircraft
  19. plane — a tool
  20. shower — rain
  21. last — finally
  22. perch — the fish
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. straw — dry grass

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