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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  6. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  9. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. There's no middle ________________.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  16. The ________________ market has crashed.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. The ________________ took off on time.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. toast — a drink to someone
  3. cold — an illness
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. plane — a tool
  6. plane — in geometry
  7. ground — crushed
  8. toast — bread
  9. trunk — of an elephant
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. ground — a position
  12. kid — child
  13. toast — the most admired
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. trunk — of a car
  16. stock — shares
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. kid — to tease
  19. plane — an aircraft
  20. cold — not warm
  21. stock — goods
  22. trunk — of a tree
  23. game — a match
  24. ground — the earth

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