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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 116 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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. bass — low music
  4. net — for catching
  5. bass — the instrument
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cold — an illness
  8. face — to confront
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. cold — not warm
  11. net — in sport
  12. bass — the fish
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. last — to go on
  15. last — final
  16. face — part of the head
  17. net — after costs
  18. file — a document
  19. chair — a leader
  20. face — to point toward
  21. game — a match
  22. last — finally
  23. file — a line of people
  24. game — wild animals

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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