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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. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  13. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  14. The ________________ took off on time.
  15. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  16. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  21. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. shower — rain
  4. kid — to tease
  5. bowl — a dish
  6. shower — to wash
  7. kid — child
  8. spring — the season
  9. spring — of water
  10. cap — a hat
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. branch — a division
  13. cap — of ice
  14. plane — an aircraft
  15. branch — of a bank
  16. plane — in geometry
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. capital — a city
  19. plane — a tool
  20. branch — of a tree
  21. cap — a lid
  22. spring — a coil
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. capital — money

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