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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. Did you ________________ the button?
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. court — of a king
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. field — for sport
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. game — a match
  7. court — of law
  8. last — final
  9. press — a publisher
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. court — for sport
  12. field — farmland
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. file — a line of people
  15. press — newspapers
  16. last — finally
  17. shower — rain
  18. field — a subject
  19. shower — to wash
  20. file — a tool
  21. last — to go on
  22. press — to push
  23. file — a document
  24. game — wild animals

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