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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. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. snap — to click
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. wound — an injury
  5. craft — a skill
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. wound — an injury
  8. bowl — a dish
  9. cold — not warm
  10. bass — low music
  11. craft — a handicraft
  12. bass — the fish
  13. craft — boats
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. bowl — a football final
  16. chest — of your body
  17. chest — a box
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. mine — for digging
  21. bass — the instrument
  22. chest — of your body
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. cold — an illness

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