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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 120 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. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  3. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. Have you found your soul ________________?
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  13. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  23. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  24. The ________________ took off on time.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. snap — to speak sharply
  3. mate — a friend
  4. snap — to click
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. cold — not warm
  7. game — a match
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. mate — a partner
  10. stock — shares
  11. file — a tool
  12. bowl — a dish
  13. plane — in geometry
  14. file — a document
  15. plane — a tool
  16. cold — an illness
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. file — a line of people
  20. game — wild animals
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. stock — goods
  23. bowl — to roll
  24. plane — an aircraft

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