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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. She's very handy with a ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  6. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. That must've been a ________________.
  11. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  14. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  15. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. prune — to trim
  3. saw — the tool
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. club — for dancing
  6. club — for golf
  7. spell — letters
  8. game — a match
  9. spring — a coil
  10. rush — a thrill
  11. bowl — a football final
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. saw — past of 'see'
  14. bowl — to roll
  15. rush — hurry
  16. spring — the season
  17. saw — the tool
  18. spring — of water
  19. spell — a short time
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. game — wild animals
  22. spell — magic
  23. prune — to trim
  24. club — a group

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