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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.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

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

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  3. The King held a masked ________________.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  7. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  10. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. ball — a dance
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. ball — a round shape
  7. patient — a sick person
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. ball — a great time
  10. patient — calm and waiting
  11. clip — to cut
  12. bowl — to roll
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. capital — a city
  15. clip — a video
  16. clip — for paper
  17. capital — money
  18. trunk — of a tree

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