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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 116 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. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  2. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  16. The ________________ went through the wall.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — on a finger
  2. nail — for a hammer
  3. row — a line
  4. game — wild animals
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. wake — before a funeral
  7. pitch — completely
  8. file — a document
  9. capital — money
  10. pitch — a sports field
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. pitch — a sales talk
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. capital — a city
  15. wake — a trail
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. game — a match
  19. file — a tool
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. kid — child
  22. file — a line of people
  23. row — to paddle
  24. kid — to tease

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