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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Did you ________________ the meat?
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  15. The King held a masked ________________.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. We're almost out of ________________.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. season — to add flavour
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. ball — a round shape
  6. season — of the year
  7. pop — to visit
  8. cold — an illness
  9. season — in sport
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. ball — a great time
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. hand — in cards
  14. pop — music
  15. ball — a dance
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. game — a match
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. pop — soda
  20. snap — to click
  21. cold — not warm
  22. game — wild animals
  23. hand — help
  24. bat — the animal

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