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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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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: row · spell · shower · game · pop · content · hand · wind

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. You don't need to ________________ round.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  13. We're almost out of ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. wind — moving air
  3. game — a match
  4. pop — to visit
  5. spell — magic
  6. content — the amount
  7. row — to paddle
  8. shower — to wash
  9. row — a line
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. spell — letters
  12. spell — a short time
  13. pop — soda
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. hand — in cards
  16. wind — moving air
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. pop — music
  20. hand — help
  21. game — wild animals
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. shower — rain
  24. content — videos and posts

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