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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 120 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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  15. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. cold — not warm
  3. file — a tool
  4. rest — a break
  5. game — a match
  6. rest — what's left
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. club — for dancing
  9. club — for golf
  10. field — farmland
  11. field — a subject
  12. staff — employees
  13. file — a line of people
  14. staff — employees
  15. club — a group
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. game — wild animals
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. staff — a stick
  22. field — for sport
  23. file — a document
  24. rest — what's left

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