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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's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. row — a line
  4. cell — in biology
  5. kid — child
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. degree — an amount
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. scale — size or range
  10. club — for dancing
  11. game — a match
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. degree — from a university
  14. degree — temperature
  15. game — wild animals
  16. kid — to tease
  17. cell — a phone
  18. scale — in music
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. club — a group
  23. row — to paddle
  24. club — for golf

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