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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  11. Don't do anything ________________.
  12. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  24. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. field — for sport
  3. bowl — to roll
  4. field — farmland
  5. net — after costs
  6. shower — to wash
  7. net — for catching
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. vault — a safe
  11. rash — hasty
  12. branch — of a bank
  13. net — in sport
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. branch — a division
  16. rash — a series
  17. field — a subject
  18. snap — to click
  19. shower — rain
  20. bowl — a football final
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. vault — in gymnastics
  24. vault — an arched ceiling

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