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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. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  6. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  7. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  12. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  21. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. I'll be taking the ________________.
  24. The spa offers ________________ extensions.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. lean — to rest against
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. cold — not warm
  5. tube — in a tire
  6. wake — before a funeral
  7. lean — thin
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. lash — to lash out
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. lash — a whip stroke
  12. tube — a container
  13. clip — a video
  14. bowl — a dish
  15. clip — for paper
  16. cold — an illness
  17. clip — to cut
  18. lean — to bend
  19. bat — the animal
  20. wake — a trail
  21. bowl — a football final
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. tube — the underground
  24. lash — an eyelash

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