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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 was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  17. The ________________ took off on time.
  18. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  19. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. row — a line
  4. cold — not warm
  5. tube — the underground
  6. plane — a tool
  7. tube — a container
  8. row — to paddle
  9. ball — a dance
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. hand — in cards
  13. cold — an illness
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. hand — help
  16. tube — in a tire
  17. plane — an aircraft
  18. club — for dancing
  19. club — for golf
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. club — a group
  24. cold — the Cold War

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