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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. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  13. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  17. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  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. bat — for baseball
  2. wound — an injury
  3. cue — for pool
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. game — a match
  6. chip — for betting
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. field — for sport
  10. game — wild animals
  11. field — a subject
  12. cue — a hint
  13. cue — a signal
  14. cold — not warm
  15. cold — an illness
  16. chip — to eat
  17. bore — to drill
  18. field — farmland
  19. bore — to tire
  20. wound — an injury
  21. bat — the animal
  22. bore — gave birth
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  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