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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. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  7. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  11. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  14. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  21. He works in a ________________ mill.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The ball is in your ________________.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. cold — not warm
  3. band — a music group
  4. court — of a king
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. chip — to eat
  7. fall — to drop
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. court — of law
  10. chip — for betting
  11. chip — in a computer
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. wake — before a funeral
  14. wake — a trail
  15. band — a ring
  16. cold — an illness
  17. fall — to drop
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. fall — the season
  20. wake — to stop sleeping
  21. saw — the tool
  22. bat — the animal
  23. court — for sport
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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