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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  4. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  11. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  12. Have you settled on a ________________?
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  20. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  21. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  22. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. cold — not warm
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. bowl — a dish
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. game — wild animals
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. chest — of your body
  10. date — the fruit
  11. bowl — to roll
  12. date — on the calendar
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. cold — an illness
  16. current — of water
  17. ground — the earth
  18. ground — a position
  19. current — electric
  20. current — happening now
  21. ground — crushed
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. chest — of your body
  24. chest — a box

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