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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: field · hand · cold · squash · spell · sharp · rule · wind

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  15. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  16. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. wind — moving air
  3. sharp — clever
  4. spell — magic
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — not warm
  8. field — a subject
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. squash — to crush
  13. field — farmland
  14. squash — the vegetable
  15. rule — a law
  16. squash — the sport
  17. hand — in cards
  18. rule — government
  19. field — for sport
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. wind — moving air
  22. spell — a short time
  23. rule — to rule out
  24. spell — letters

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