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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  3. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  9. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  19. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. wave — of the sea
  3. bowl — a football final
  4. degree — an amount
  5. net — after costs
  6. cell — in biology
  7. net — in sport
  8. wave — with your hand
  9. bowl — to roll
  10. tear — from crying
  11. degree — temperature
  12. tear — from crying
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. wound — an injury
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. land — a country
  17. cell — a phone
  18. wave — a sudden rise
  19. net — for catching
  20. wound — an injury
  21. tear — to rip
  22. degree — from a university
  23. land — ground
  24. land — to come down

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