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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  3. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  4. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  7. We're on a ________________ here.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. It's one o'clock ________________.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. She got the top ________________ in the exam.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. current — happening now
  3. current — electric
  4. bass — low music
  5. sharp — clever
  6. mark — to pay attention
  7. roll — on a roll
  8. land — a country
  9. sharp — exactly
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. current — of water
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. court — for sport
  14. court — of law
  15. mark — a trace
  16. cold — not warm
  17. bass — the fish
  18. court — of a king
  19. roll — a cake
  20. cold — an illness
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. roll — a list
  23. land — ground
  24. mark — a grade

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