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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  4. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  5. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  22. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. hand — in cards
  3. wave — with your hand
  4. tube — a container
  5. wave — of the sea
  6. hand — help
  7. tube — the underground
  8. kid — to tease
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. court — of law
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. shower — to wash
  13. land — a country
  14. court — of a king
  15. land — ground
  16. land — to come down
  17. wave — a sudden rise
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. kid — child
  21. tube — in a tire
  22. perch — the fish
  23. shower — rain
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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