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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 116 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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. swing — in golf
  4. row — to paddle
  5. game — a match
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. face — part of the head
  10. swing — to play on
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. cell — a phone
  15. clip — for paper
  16. face — to point toward
  17. clip — to cut
  18. face — to confront
  19. clip — a video
  20. swing — music
  21. cell — in biology
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. row — a line
  24. row — a quarrel

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