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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. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. She's very handy with a ________________.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — to hit hard
  2. cold — not warm
  3. game — wild animals
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. saw — past of 'see'
  7. spring — a coil
  8. saw — the tool
  9. band — a ring
  10. band — a music group
  11. pound — a weight
  12. wind — moving air
  13. court — of a king
  14. cold — an illness
  15. game — a match
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. saw — the tool
  18. spring — of water
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. pound — for dogs
  21. wind — moving air
  22. court — for sport
  23. spring — the season
  24. court — of law

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