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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  4. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  5. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  6. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  7. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  12. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  15. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  16. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  17. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  18. He works in a ________________ mill.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. This piece is in a major ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. Did you ________________ the button?

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. saw — the tool
  3. swing — in golf
  4. dip — a sauce
  5. bowl — to roll
  6. key — for a lock
  7. press — newspapers
  8. swing — to play on
  9. dip — to sink
  10. cold — not warm
  11. dip — to dunk
  12. saw — past of 'see'
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. key — the most important part
  15. swing — music
  16. bowl — a football final
  17. press — a publisher
  18. saw — the tool
  19. cold — an illness
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. key — in music
  22. bat — the animal
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. press — to push

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