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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  11. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. content — the amount
  3. land — ground
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. snap — to click
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. row — to paddle
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. bowl — a football final
  11. bowl — a dish
  12. file — a line of people
  13. game — a match
  14. row — a line
  15. bowl — to roll
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. land — to come down
  19. content — happy
  20. file — a document
  21. game — wild animals
  22. land — a country
  23. file — a tool
  24. row — a quarrel

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