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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  4. He works in a ________________ mill.
  5. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. The King held a masked ________________.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. squash — the sport
  3. squash — the vegetable
  4. saw — the tool
  5. branch — a division
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. saw — the tool
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. kid — to tease
  12. squash — to crush
  13. branch — of a bank
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. ball — a great time
  16. content — happy
  17. content — the amount
  18. ball — a round shape
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. shower — rain
  21. ball — a dance
  22. kid — child
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. mine — for digging

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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