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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. He works in a ________________ mill.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. She's very handy with a ________________.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. kid — child
  3. saw — past of 'see'
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. kid — to tease
  6. saw — the tool
  7. court — of a king
  8. cold — an illness
  9. wind — moving air
  10. saw — the tool
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. court — for sport
  13. capital — a city
  14. wind — moving air
  15. court — of law
  16. club — a group
  17. club — for golf
  18. capital — money
  19. cold — not warm
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. game — a match
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. club — for dancing
  24. game — a kind of play

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