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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. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  3. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  6. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  7. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  8. The ________________ went through the wall.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  12. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. rash — a series
  3. nail — for a hammer
  4. file — a tool
  5. vault — an arched ceiling
  6. nail — on a finger
  7. scale — for weighing
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. scale — in music
  10. file — a line of people
  11. vault — a safe
  12. vault — in gymnastics
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. game — a match
  15. rash — on the skin
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cold — an illness
  18. capital — a city
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. scale — size or range
  21. file — a document
  22. game — wild animals
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. capital — money

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