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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 116 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: spell · field · spring · scale · shower · fan · swing · kid

  1. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. spring — the season
  4. swing — in golf
  5. field — farmland
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. spring — a coil
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. scale — size or range
  10. shower — rain
  11. spring — of water
  12. field — for sport
  13. kid — to tease
  14. spell — a short time
  15. field — a subject
  16. swing — to play on
  17. shower — to wash
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. scale — in music
  20. swing — music
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. spell — magic
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. kid — child

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