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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  10. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Where did you ________________ them?
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  24. He refilled his coffee ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. club — for dancing
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. bowl — a football final
  5. cold — an illness
  6. court — of law
  7. club — a group
  8. court — for sport
  9. fork — to eat with
  10. fork — a garden tool
  11. rash — a series
  12. bowl — to roll
  13. fork — in a road
  14. mug — a face
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. court — of a king
  17. club — for golf
  18. bat — the animal
  19. mug — to rob
  20. rash — hasty
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. cold — not warm
  23. rash — on the skin
  24. mug — a cup

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