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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  11. The ________________ took off on time.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. kid — to tease
  3. hand — in cards
  4. face — to point toward
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. face — to confront
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. bowl — to roll
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. bowl — a football final
  11. plane — an aircraft
  12. drill — a practice
  13. hand — help
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. drill — army training
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. plane — a tool
  20. face — part of the head
  21. bat — the animal
  22. kid — child
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. drill — the 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