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

Word bank: shower · ground · snap · spell · kick · rock · deal · cold

  1. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  18. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  24. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. rock — music
  3. deal — to handle
  4. cold — not warm
  5. spell — letters
  6. spell — magic
  7. rock — to move gently
  8. ground — a position
  9. deal — a big deal
  10. shower — rain
  11. rock — a stone
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. deal — an agreement
  15. shower — to wash
  16. snap — to click
  17. kick — a thrill
  18. ground — crushed
  19. spell — a short time
  20. cold — an illness
  21. ground — the earth
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. kick — in football
  24. kick — with a leg

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