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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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. Have you met the new head ________________?
  7. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  12. She's very handy with a ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  16. We're almost out of ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. He works in a ________________ mill.
  20. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  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. coach — pulled by horses
  2. club — for dancing
  3. cold — not warm
  4. saw — past of 'see'
  5. hand — in cards
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. club — a group
  8. hand — help
  9. pop — to visit
  10. land — to come down
  11. pop — music
  12. saw — the tool
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. land — ground
  15. club — for golf
  16. pop — soda
  17. cold — an illness
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. saw — the tool
  20. coach — a trainer
  21. row — to paddle
  22. land — a country
  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