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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  6. You don't need to ________________ round.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  11. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  12. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. The ball is in your ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. We're almost out of ________________.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. shower — to wash
  4. shower — rain
  5. rock — music
  6. pop — to visit
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. club — a group
  9. pop — music
  10. club — for golf
  11. rock — a stone
  12. rock — to move gently
  13. cold — an illness
  14. club — for dancing
  15. court — of law
  16. court — of a king
  17. court — for sport
  18. degree — temperature
  19. game — wild animals
  20. pop — soda
  21. degree — an amount
  22. cold — not warm
  23. degree — from a university
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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