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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. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. We're almost out of ________________.
  3. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. You don't need to ________________ round.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  17. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  18. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. pop — soda
  3. bowl — a dish
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. file — a tool
  6. pop — to visit
  7. clip — for paper
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. file — a line of people
  10. shower — to wash
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. shower — rain
  13. file — a document
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. pop — music
  18. bowl — a football final
  19. clip — a video
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. clip — to cut
  22. fan — to cool the air
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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