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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. The ________________ went through the wall.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  23. David sat on the ________________.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. track — to keep track
  3. nail — for a hammer
  4. bat — the animal
  5. file — a tool
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. file — a line of people
  8. spell — a short time
  9. track — a song
  10. game — a match
  11. spell — magic
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. swing — in golf
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. game — wild animals
  16. cell — in biology
  17. cell — a phone
  18. spell — letters
  19. nail — on a finger
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. file — a document
  22. track — a path
  23. swing — to play on
  24. swing — music

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