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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  4. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  16. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. kid — child
  3. craft — a skill
  4. spell — a short time
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. face — to point toward
  7. land — to come down
  8. craft — boats
  9. spell — magic
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. face — to confront
  12. cold — not warm
  13. bowl — to roll
  14. land — ground
  15. bore — to tire
  16. bore — to drill
  17. kid — to tease
  18. bore — gave birth
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. spell — letters
  21. cold — an illness
  22. face — part of the head
  23. craft — a handicraft
  24. land — a country

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