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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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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. bowl — a football final
  4. spring — the season
  5. shower — rain
  6. spring — a coil
  7. spring — of water
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. field — for sport
  11. field — farmland
  12. ball — a dance
  13. shower — to wash
  14. last — final
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. last — finally
  17. ball — a great time
  18. chest — of your body
  19. last — to go on
  20. chest — a box
  21. bowl — to roll
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. chest — of your body
  24. field — a subject

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