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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 ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  16. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  21. I'll be taking the ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. game — wild animals
  4. wake — before a funeral
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. land — to come down
  7. game — a match
  8. capital — money
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. wound — an injury
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. wound — an injury
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. tube — in a tire
  16. tube — a container
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. wake — a trail
  19. land — ground
  20. perch — the fish
  21. tube — the underground
  22. capital — a city
  23. land — a country
  24. perch — for a bird

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