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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  14. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  15. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. march — music
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. chest — of your body
  6. track — a song
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. march — the month
  9. mine — for digging
  10. track — a path
  11. chest — a box
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. mark — a grade
  14. mark — to pay attention
  15. track — to keep track
  16. cold — an illness
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. chest — of your body
  19. cold — not warm
  20. game — wild animals
  21. game — a match
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. mark — a trace
  24. march — the month

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