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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  8. She's very handy with a ________________.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  13. He works in a ________________ mill.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. court — for sport
  3. squash — to crush
  4. file — a line of people
  5. land — to come down
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. lean — to bend
  8. saw — the tool
  9. band — a ring
  10. land — a country
  11. squash — the sport
  12. lean — to rest against
  13. saw — the tool
  14. court — of a king
  15. land — ground
  16. file — a document
  17. court — of law
  18. saw — past of 'see'
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. squash — the vegetable
  22. band — a music group
  23. lean — thin
  24. file — a tool

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