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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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. The ________________ took off on time.
  9. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  24. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. spring — of water
  3. kid — child
  4. spell — letters
  5. kid — to tease
  6. capital — a city
  7. spring — the season
  8. plane — an aircraft
  9. rule — government
  10. capital — money
  11. land — ground
  12. land — to come down
  13. spring — a coil
  14. bowl — a dish
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. plane — in geometry
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. bowl — a football final
  19. spell — a short time
  20. spell — magic
  21. rule — to rule out
  22. land — a country
  23. rule — a law
  24. plane — a tool

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