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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  9. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  10. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  22. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. court — of a king
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. file — a tool
  5. bat — the animal
  6. file — a line of people
  7. shower — to wash
  8. chip — for betting
  9. chip — in a computer
  10. chip — to eat
  11. game — wild animals
  12. kid — to tease
  13. shower — rain
  14. court — of law
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. kid — child
  21. perch — the fish
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. file — a document
  24. court — for sport

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