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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. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  16. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  17. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  20. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  21. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — high quality
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. clip — a video
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. clip — for paper
  6. game — wild animals
  7. chip — for betting
  8. land — ground
  9. net — in sport
  10. game — a match
  11. land — to come down
  12. dip — a sauce
  13. clip — to cut
  14. net — after costs
  15. dip — to dunk
  16. chip — in a computer
  17. fine — all right
  18. land — a country
  19. net — for catching
  20. fine — a penalty
  21. chip — to eat
  22. bat — the animal
  23. dip — to sink
  24. bat — in an idiom

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