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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. The King held a masked ________________.
  6. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. game — a match
  3. rash — hasty
  4. game — wild animals
  5. ball — a dance
  6. rash — on the skin
  7. bat — the animal
  8. ball — a great time
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. stock — shares
  11. ball — a round shape
  12. shower — to wash
  13. chair — a leader
  14. wound — an injury
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. wound — an injury
  19. rash — a series
  20. shower — rain
  21. stock — a soup base
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. stock — goods
  24. bat — in an idiom

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