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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  4. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. tear — from crying
  3. wake — a trail
  4. wake — to stop sleeping
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. spring — a coil
  7. court — of law
  8. land — to come down
  9. kid — to tease
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. kid — child
  12. wake — before a funeral
  13. court — of a king
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. land — a country
  16. spring — of water
  17. spring — the season
  18. tear — to rip
  19. court — for sport
  20. bowl — to roll
  21. land — ground
  22. tear — from crying
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. bowl — a football final

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