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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  8. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  17. Have you settled on a ________________?
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  23. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. bowl — a football final
  4. row — a line
  5. bowl — a dish
  6. clip — for paper
  7. date — the fruit
  8. bank — of a river
  9. row — to paddle
  10. clip — a video
  11. shower — to wash
  12. shower — rain
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. cold — an illness
  15. land — to come down
  16. bowl — to roll
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. land — ground
  20. land — a country
  21. clip — to cut
  22. bank — for money
  23. bank — for money
  24. row — a quarrel

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