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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: fan · content · mine · club · cold · clip · rash · bowl

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  8. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. Don't do anything ________________.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  17. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  18. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. club — for golf
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. content — happy
  5. clip — a video
  6. clip — to cut
  7. club — a group
  8. bowl — a football final
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. mine — for digging
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. rash — hasty
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. rash — a series
  16. fan — to cool the air
  17. rash — on the skin
  18. club — for dancing
  19. cold — an illness
  20. content — the amount
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. clip — for paper
  23. bowl — to roll
  24. cold — not warm

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