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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. She got the top ________________ in the exam.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. land — ground
  3. land — to come down
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. squash — to crush
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. hand — in cards
  12. cold — not warm
  13. mark — a trace
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. mark — to pay attention
  16. cold — an illness
  17. bat — the animal
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. hand — help
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. mine — for digging
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. land — a country
  24. mark — a grade

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