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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  10. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  22. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  23. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  24. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. march — the month
  3. rule — government
  4. drill — a practice
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. march — music
  7. march — the month
  8. cold — not warm
  9. vault — a safe
  10. bowl — a football final
  11. content — the amount
  12. vault — in gymnastics
  13. drill — army training
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. cold — an illness
  16. drill — the tool
  17. content — happy
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. bat — the animal
  21. vault — an arched ceiling
  22. bowl — to roll
  23. rule — to rule out
  24. rule — a law

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