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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.

Words on the sheet
468
Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: shower · lash · racket · court · spell · game · wound · content

  1. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  22. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. He hit the ball with his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. game — wild animals
  3. spell — magic
  4. racket — a loud noise
  5. court — of law
  6. lash — a whip stroke
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. wound — an injury
  9. content — happy
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. content — the amount
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. shower — to wash
  14. game — a match
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. lash — to lash out
  17. spell — a short time
  18. wound — an injury
  19. court — of a king
  20. court — for sport
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. lash — an eyelash
  23. shower — rain
  24. racket — for tennis

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