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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: pitch · clip · bowl · row · shower · lean · snap · land

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  10. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  17. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  18. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. shower — to wash
  3. land — to come down
  4. bowl — a football final
  5. row — a line
  6. snap — to click
  7. clip — for paper
  8. clip — to cut
  9. lean — thin
  10. pitch — a sales talk
  11. clip — a video
  12. row — to paddle
  13. pitch — a sports field
  14. land — ground
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. lean — to bend
  17. bowl — to roll
  18. lean — to rest against
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. land — a country
  21. pitch — completely
  22. shower — rain
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. snap — to snap out of it

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