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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  8. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. You can't go backstage without a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. bat — the animal
  6. tear — to rip
  7. bowl — a football final
  8. bowl — to roll
  9. row — to paddle
  10. hand — help
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. land — to come down
  13. tear — from crying
  14. row — a line
  15. wound — an injury
  16. land — ground
  17. hand — in cards
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. land — a country
  20. pass — to succeed
  21. wound — an injury
  22. pass — to spend time
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. pass — a permit

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