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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. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. mouse — the animal
  3. land — a country
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. land — ground
  6. spring — of water
  7. game — wild animals
  8. mouse — for a computer
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. march — the month
  11. bat — the animal
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. march — music
  14. mouse — the animal
  15. capital — a city
  16. spring — a coil
  17. spring — the season
  18. capital — money
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. land — to come down
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. mine — for digging
  23. march — the month
  24. game — a match

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