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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.

Make a worksheet

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. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  17. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. row — a line
  4. ball — a round shape
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. wind — moving air
  8. wind — moving air
  9. field — for sport
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. game — a match
  12. ball — a dance
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. game — wild animals
  15. field — a subject
  16. track — a path
  17. track — a song
  18. field — farmland
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. track — to keep track
  23. mine — for digging
  24. row — to paddle

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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