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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  7. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  13. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  20. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. shower — to wash
  3. kid — child
  4. shower — rain
  5. file — a tool
  6. board — a flat piece
  7. toast — the most admired
  8. scale — in music
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. kid — to tease
  12. bowl — to roll
  13. board — a committee
  14. file — a line of people
  15. scale — size or range
  16. toast — a drink to someone
  17. clip — to cut
  18. clip — a video
  19. bowl — a football final
  20. board — to get on
  21. clip — for paper
  22. file — a document
  23. toast — bread
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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