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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 captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  3. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  7. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  22. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  23. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. board — to get on
  3. rest — what's left
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. clip — a video
  6. bowl — a football final
  7. board — a committee
  8. squash — the sport
  9. squash — to crush
  10. file — a document
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. kid — to tease
  13. file — a line of people
  14. clip — to cut
  15. clip — for paper
  16. game — wild animals
  17. rest — a break
  18. kid — child
  19. squash — the vegetable
  20. game — a match
  21. board — a flat piece
  22. rest — what's left
  23. bowl — to roll
  24. file — a tool

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