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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 120 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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  5. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. The ________________ took off on time.
  11. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. game — a match
  4. squash — the sport
  5. foot — the bottom
  6. row — a line
  7. game — wild animals
  8. capital — a city
  9. squash — to crush
  10. plane — an aircraft
  11. foot — a measure
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. row — to paddle
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. foot — part of the body
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. capital — money
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. plane — a tool
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. squash — the vegetable

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