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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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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. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  4. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  13. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  14. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  17. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. root — of a word
  4. bowl — a football final
  5. clip — to cut
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. bat — the animal
  8. rest — what's left
  9. drill — the tool
  10. hand — help
  11. clip — a video
  12. root — of a plant
  13. root — the cause
  14. rest — what's left
  15. hand — in cards
  16. bowl — a dish
  17. drill — a practice
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — an illness
  21. clip — for paper
  22. rest — a break
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. drill — army training

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