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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  20. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. squash — the sport
  3. bowl — a dish
  4. drill — the tool
  5. fine — all right
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. cold — not warm
  9. bowl — a football final
  10. cold — an illness
  11. drill — army training
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. stem — to come from
  14. capital — a city
  15. tear — from crying
  16. tear — from crying
  17. stem — a stem cell
  18. tear — to rip
  19. fine — high quality
  20. fine — a penalty
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. capital — money
  23. drill — a practice
  24. squash — to crush

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