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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. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. game — a match
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. wind — moving air
  5. wind — moving air
  6. wave — with your hand
  7. court — of a king
  8. content — happy
  9. ball — a dance
  10. wave — a sudden rise
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. wave — of the sea
  14. game — wild animals
  15. bat — the animal
  16. court — of law
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. court — for sport
  19. cell — in biology
  20. ball — a round shape
  21. content — the amount
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. ball — a great time
  24. bat — for baseball

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