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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. She's very handy with a ________________.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. He works in a ________________ mill.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. Don't do anything ________________.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  13. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  19. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. game — a match
  3. vault — a safe
  4. court — of a king
  5. saw — the tool
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. saw — the tool
  9. game — wild animals
  10. rash — hasty
  11. swing — to play on
  12. vault — in gymnastics
  13. rash — a series
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. vault — an arched ceiling
  16. cold — not warm
  17. swing — in golf
  18. saw — past of 'see'
  19. rash — on the skin
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. swing — music
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. court — of law
  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