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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 116 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. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. spell — letters
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. land — a country
  5. staff — employees
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. file — a tool
  8. hand — help
  9. staff — a stick
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. spell — magic
  12. bowl — a football final
  13. land — ground
  14. row — a line
  15. file — a document
  16. row — to paddle
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. file — a line of people
  19. bark — to shout
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. hand — in cards
  22. land — to come down
  23. staff — employees
  24. spell — a short time

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