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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 King held a masked ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. This piece is in a major ________________.
  9. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  12. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a dance
  2. cold — an illness
  3. band — a ring
  4. chest — of your body
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. band — a music group
  7. land — to come down
  8. key — in music
  9. key — the most important part
  10. land — ground
  11. ball — a great time
  12. chip — for betting
  13. land — a country
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. chest — a box
  16. cold — not warm
  17. shower — to wash
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. chip — in a computer
  20. chest — of your body
  21. chip — to eat
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. shower — rain
  24. key — for a lock

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