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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. The tickets are free of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. spell — magic
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. field — a subject
  6. game — wild animals
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. charge — in control
  11. spell — letters
  12. field — farmland
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. charge — electricity
  15. mine — for digging
  16. game — a match
  17. spell — a short time
  18. cold — not warm
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. field — for sport
  21. cold — an illness
  22. snap — to click
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. charge — a price

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