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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 ball is in your ________________.
  2. Have you settled on a ________________?
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  11. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  12. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The King held a masked ________________.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  21. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. spring — of water
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. spring — a coil
  6. date — the fruit
  7. spring — the season
  8. court — of a king
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. bass — the instrument
  11. ball — a great time
  12. date — on the calendar
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. ball — a dance
  17. court — of law
  18. bat — the animal
  19. mine — for digging
  20. branch — of a tree
  21. bass — the fish
  22. branch — a division
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. bass — low music

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