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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. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  2. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a cake
  2. root — of a word
  3. bat — the animal
  4. spring — of water
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. spring — the season
  7. root — of a plant
  8. court — for sport
  9. capital — a city
  10. spring — a coil
  11. root — the cause
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. court — of law
  14. roll — a list
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. game — a match
  19. pound — a weight
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. game — wild animals
  22. court — of a king
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. capital — money

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