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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. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. Did you ________________ the meat?
  6. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  7. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  8. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. hand — in cards
  3. shower — to wash
  4. ball — a dance
  5. season — to add flavour
  6. drill — the tool
  7. season — in sport
  8. bass — the instrument
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. bass — low music
  11. shower — rain
  12. bass — the fish
  13. drill — a practice
  14. hand — help
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. drill — army training
  17. ball — a great time
  18. land — ground
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. land — to come down
  21. bat — the animal
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. land — a country

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