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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  18. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. hand — in cards
  3. bowl — a dish
  4. prune — to trim
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. branch — a division
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. scale — in music
  9. scale — size or range
  10. spring — a coil
  11. row — a line
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. bowl — a football final
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. branch — of a bank
  18. bowl — to roll
  19. spring — of water
  20. prune — to trim
  21. spring — the season
  22. squash — to crush
  23. hand — help
  24. row — to paddle

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