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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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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: chair · mine · hand · craft · bowl · wound · fan · bat

  1. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  8. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  21. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. Can you turn the ________________ on?

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. hand — in cards
  4. chair — a leader
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. craft — boats
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. bat — the animal
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. mine — for digging
  16. craft — a skill
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. hand — help
  20. craft — a handicraft
  21. chair — a professorship
  22. wound — an injury
  23. wound — an injury
  24. fan — to cool the air

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