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

  1. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  2. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  18. Don't do anything ________________.
  19. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  24. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?

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

Answer key

  1. wake — before a funeral
  2. squash — the vegetable
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. squash — the sport
  7. wake — a trail
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. rock — to move gently
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — not warm
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. rash — on the skin
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. bark — to shout
  16. game — a match
  17. rock — a stone
  18. rash — hasty
  19. rash — a series
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. game — wild animals
  23. squash — to crush
  24. rock — music

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