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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. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. spell — magic
  3. spell — letters
  4. prune — to trim
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. last — finally
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. stem — to come from
  9. kid — to tease
  10. kid — child
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. shower — to wash
  15. prune — to trim
  16. shower — rain
  17. spell — a short time
  18. capital — a city
  19. last — to go on
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. last — final
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. bowl — a dish
  24. capital — money

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