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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. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a line of people
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. file — a tool
  4. kid — child
  5. march — music
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. file — a document
  8. game — wild animals
  9. fine — all right
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. fine — a penalty
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. fine — high quality
  14. kid — to tease
  15. march — the month
  16. game — a match
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. band — a music group
  22. march — the month
  23. bat — the animal
  24. band — a ring

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