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

Word bank: bowl · wind · date · foot · game · kid · face · land

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. Have you settled on a ________________?
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  16. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  17. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  18. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  19. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  20. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  21. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. land — ground
  4. wind — moving air
  5. game — a match
  6. game — wild animals
  7. foot — part of the body
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. land — a country
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. kid — child
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. kid — to tease
  14. wind — moving air
  15. face — to confront
  16. date — the fruit
  17. foot — the bottom
  18. foot — a measure
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. bowl — to roll
  21. bowl — a football final
  22. land — to come down
  23. face — part of the head
  24. face — to point toward

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