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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  18. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. court — of law
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. land — to come down
  5. branch — a division
  6. spell — letters
  7. court — for sport
  8. land — ground
  9. shower — to wash
  10. land — a country
  11. court — of a king
  12. branch — of a tree
  13. spell — magic
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. scale — in music
  17. branch — of a bank
  18. chair — a leader
  19. shower — rain
  20. spell — a short time
  21. scale — size or range
  22. hand — in cards
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. chair — a professorship

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