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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 116 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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468
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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  21. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  22. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. The spa offers ________________ extensions.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. content — the amount
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. spell — letters
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. hand — help
  8. hand — in cards
  9. content — happy
  10. kid — child
  11. cold — not warm
  12. spell — magic
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. kid — to tease
  16. mate — to breed
  17. mate — a friend
  18. cold — an illness
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. bowl — to roll
  21. lash — a whip stroke
  22. lash — to lash out
  23. spell — a short time
  24. lash — an eyelash

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