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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. We're almost out of ________________.
  23. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. game — wild animals
  3. pop — to visit
  4. dip — to sink
  5. chest — of your body
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. file — a document
  8. scale — in music
  9. dip — to dunk
  10. pop — music
  11. chest — of your body
  12. trunk — of a car
  13. cold — not warm
  14. game — a match
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cold — an illness
  17. scale — size or range
  18. trunk — of a tree
  19. file — a tool
  20. file — a line of people
  21. chest — a box
  22. pop — soda
  23. dip — a sauce
  24. scale — for weighing

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