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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. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  2. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  5. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. Don't do anything ________________.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — on the skin
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. coach — pulled by horses
  6. row — to paddle
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. game — a match
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. clip — a video
  11. clip — to cut
  12. game — wild animals
  13. clip — for paper
  14. racket — a loud noise
  15. rash — a series
  16. scale — size or range
  17. net — for catching
  18. scale — in music
  19. rash — hasty
  20. net — in sport
  21. net — after costs
  22. racket — for tennis
  23. row — a line
  24. coach — a trainer

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