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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

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

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. The King held a masked ________________.
  9. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. club — a group
  3. ball — a great time
  4. spring — of water
  5. spring — the season
  6. degree — an amount
  7. degree — from a university
  8. ball — a dance
  9. club — for dancing
  10. court — of a king
  11. court — for sport
  12. hand — in cards
  13. degree — temperature
  14. club — for golf
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. spring — a coil
  17. court — of law
  18. ball — a round shape

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