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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. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — animal skin
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. clip — for paper
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. game — wild animals
  9. shower — rain
  10. court — for sport
  11. shower — to wash
  12. hide — to keep secret
  13. clip — a video
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. mine — for digging
  17. court — of law
  18. court — of a king
  19. scale — in music
  20. scale — size or range
  21. game — a match
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. clip — to cut

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