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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. snap — to click
  4. land — ground
  5. squash — the vegetable
  6. kid — to tease
  7. rule — a law
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. spell — letters
  11. land — a country
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. game — a match
  14. squash — to crush
  15. spell — a short time
  16. land — to come down
  17. shower — rain
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. shower — to wash
  20. rule — government
  21. game — wild animals
  22. squash — the sport
  23. spell — magic
  24. rule — to rule out

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