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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 120 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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  24. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. game — a match
  6. shower — to wash
  7. racket — for tennis
  8. cold — an illness
  9. racket — a loud noise
  10. scale — in music
  11. prune — to trim
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. shower — rain
  14. snap — to click
  15. cold — not warm
  16. game — wild animals
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. bowl — a football final
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. scale — size or range
  22. prune — to trim
  23. racket — for tennis
  24. bowl — to roll

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