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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. We're almost out of ________________.
  3. That was ________________ to happen.
  4. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  16. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  19. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  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. bowl — a dish
  2. pop — soda
  3. bound — certain
  4. bore — to drill
  5. field — for sport
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. bore — to tire
  8. row — a line
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. bore — gave birth
  11. net — in sport
  12. bowl — to roll
  13. pop — to visit
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. net — after costs
  16. pop — music
  17. row — to paddle
  18. bound — obliged
  19. bound — tied together
  20. field — farmland
  21. net — for catching
  22. field — a subject
  23. bowl — a football final
  24. mine — for digging

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