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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. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  6. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  12. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. court — for sport
  3. roll — a cake
  4. hand — in cards
  5. roll — a list
  6. present — the time now
  7. court — of a king
  8. wind — moving air
  9. court — of law
  10. cold — an illness
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. fan — to cool the air
  13. wind — moving air
  14. hand — help
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. land — ground
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. present — a gift
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. present — there
  22. cold — not warm
  23. land — to come down
  24. land — a country

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