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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. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. Have you found your soul ________________?
  14. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — a group
  2. band — a ring
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. scale — in music
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. game — a match
  7. band — a music group
  8. perch — the fish
  9. cold — not warm
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. scale — size or range
  12. mate — to breed
  13. mate — a partner
  14. spell — magic
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. club — for dancing
  18. spell — a short time
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. mate — a friend
  22. spell — letters
  23. game — wild animals
  24. club — for golf

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