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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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  4. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  5. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  6. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  11. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  12. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  19. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. hand — help
  3. roll — a cake
  4. fine — a penalty
  5. fine — all right
  6. pound — a weight
  7. snap — to click
  8. fine — high quality
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. date — the fruit
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. swing — music
  13. hand — in cards
  14. swing — to play on
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. roll — a list
  19. swing — in golf
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. wound — an injury
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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