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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 pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. He is an ace ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  12. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. The ________________ went through the wall.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. nail — for a hammer
  3. land — a country
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. pitcher — in baseball
  7. clip — a video
  8. clip — to cut
  9. land — ground
  10. land — to come down
  11. last — final
  12. nail — on a finger
  13. shower — rain
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. shower — to wash
  16. game — a match
  17. net — for catching
  18. clip — for paper
  19. last — to go on
  20. net — in sport
  21. last — finally
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. net — after costs
  24. nail — for a hammer

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