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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 120 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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. lean — thin
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. lean — to bend
  5. capital — money
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. game — wild animals
  8. capital — a city
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. sharp — clever
  11. game — a match
  12. scale — size or range
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. cell — in biology
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. club — for golf
  17. club — a group
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. scale — in music
  20. season — in sport
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. cell — a phone
  23. season — of the year
  24. lean — to rest against

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