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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. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  5. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  16. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  17. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  23. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. drill — army training
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. pit — in a race
  5. bowl — to roll
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. content — happy
  8. content — the amount
  9. can — a tin
  10. stem — to come from
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. game — wild animals
  13. stem — of a plant
  14. game — a match
  15. pit — a fruit stone
  16. bowl — a football final
  17. pit — a hole
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. drill — the tool
  21. mine — for digging
  22. can — a tin
  23. can — to be able to
  24. drill — a practice

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