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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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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. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  2. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  6. Have you found your soul ________________?
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  9. The ________________ took off on time.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. board — a flat piece
  2. pitch — completely
  3. cold — an illness
  4. bat — the animal
  5. plane — a tool
  6. mate — a partner
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. board — a committee
  9. plane — an aircraft
  10. cold — not warm
  11. spring — the season
  12. pitch — a sports field
  13. mate — to breed
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. row — a line
  18. spring — of water
  19. board — to get on
  20. spring — a coil
  21. row — to paddle
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. mate — a friend
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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