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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. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  7. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  23. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — to eat
  2. game — a match
  3. game — wild animals
  4. row — to paddle
  5. row — a line
  6. chip — for betting
  7. pitch — a sales talk
  8. hand — help
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. chip — in a computer
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. bat — the animal
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. pitch — completely
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. swing — music
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. swing — in golf
  21. swing — to play on
  22. pitch — a sports field
  23. patient — calm and waiting
  24. hand — in cards

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