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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  13. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The ________________ took off on time.
  16. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  22. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  23. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  24. There's a computer ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. game — wild animals
  3. chip — to eat
  4. swing — to play on
  5. cold — not warm
  6. sharp — clever
  7. land — to come down
  8. land — a country
  9. swing — in golf
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. cold — an illness
  12. pitch — completely
  13. pitch — a sales talk
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. plane — an aircraft
  16. sharp — with an edge
  17. land — ground
  18. swing — music
  19. pitch — a sports field
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. plane — a tool
  22. chip — for betting
  23. plane — in geometry
  24. chip — in a computer

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