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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. wave — of the sea
  3. squash — the sport
  4. land — ground
  5. field — for sport
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. land — to come down
  8. kid — to tease
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. wave — with your hand
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. cold — an illness
  13. field — farmland
  14. kid — child
  15. field — a subject
  16. squash — to crush
  17. game — a match
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. capital — a city
  21. capital — money
  22. cold — not warm
  23. wave — a sudden rise
  24. game — wild animals

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