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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: wind · hand · fall · charge · prune · ground · spell · shower

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. The tickets are free of ________________.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. How do you ________________ your surname?
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. prune — to trim
  3. prune — to trim
  4. charge — a price
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. wind — moving air
  7. fall — to drop
  8. spell — letters
  9. spell — a short time
  10. ground — crushed
  11. fall — the season
  12. fall — to drop
  13. spell — magic
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. ground — a position
  17. hand — in cards
  18. shower — to wash
  19. ground — the earth
  20. charge — in control
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. charge — electricity
  23. wind — moving air
  24. shower — rain

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