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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  5. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. The tickets are free of ________________.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. land — ground
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. charge — electricity
  5. bass — low music
  6. game — wild animals
  7. land — a country
  8. chest — a box
  9. bass — the instrument
  10. cold — an illness
  11. chest — of your body
  12. field — a subject
  13. chest — of your body
  14. field — farmland
  15. charge — a price
  16. mine — for digging
  17. cold — not warm
  18. field — for sport
  19. land — to come down
  20. charge — in control
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. bass — the fish
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. game — a match

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