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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 120 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. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  9. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. There's no middle ________________.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. ground — crushed
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. mine — for digging
  5. wake — a trail
  6. tear — from crying
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. board — a flat piece
  9. board — to get on
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. board — a committee
  12. tear — to rip
  13. hand — in cards
  14. ground — a position
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. shower — to wash
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. shower — rain
  19. ground — the earth
  20. stock — shares
  21. tear — from crying
  22. stock — goods
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. wake — before a funeral

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