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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. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  15. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. I'll be taking the ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  20. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  21. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  22. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  23. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  24. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. pound — for dogs
  3. cell — a phone
  4. bowl — a football final
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. race — the arms race
  7. race — humankind
  8. clip — to cut
  9. race — a contest
  10. stock — shares
  11. clip — for paper
  12. bowl — to roll
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. pound — a weight
  15. calf — of the leg
  16. cell — in biology
  17. tube — the underground
  18. clip — a video
  19. stock — a soup base
  20. calf — a young animal
  21. calf — a young animal
  22. stock — goods
  23. tube — a container
  24. tube — in a tire

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