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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: land · march · lash · field · hand · bat · bowl · rash

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. Don't do anything ________________.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  19. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. lash — to lash out
  5. march — the month
  6. march — music
  7. land — ground
  8. rash — a series
  9. field — a subject
  10. lash — an eyelash
  11. field — farmland
  12. rash — on the skin
  13. hand — in cards
  14. bat — the animal
  15. rash — hasty
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. field — for sport
  18. bowl — a football final
  19. bowl — to roll
  20. land — a country
  21. lash — a whip stroke
  22. land — to come down
  23. march — the month
  24. bat — for baseball

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