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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  11. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. My father caught me by the ________________.
  21. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. fan — to cool the air
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. game — wild animals
  7. mate — a friend
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. mate — to breed
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. arm — a part of something
  12. cold — an illness
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. swing — to play on
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. swing — in golf
  19. game — a match
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cold — not warm
  24. swing — music

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