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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 116 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. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. race — humankind
  3. bat — the animal
  4. last — to go on
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. track — a song
  7. race — a contest
  8. hand — help
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. game — a match
  11. track — to keep track
  12. field — for sport
  13. race — the arms race
  14. field — a subject
  15. game — wild animals
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. last — final
  18. track — a path
  19. field — farmland
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. branch — a division
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. hand — in cards
  24. last — finally

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