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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  13. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. This piece is in a major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. cell — a phone
  5. game — wild animals
  6. bat — the animal
  7. cell — in biology
  8. key — the most important part
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. hand — in cards
  12. fine — all right
  13. fine — high quality
  14. wind — moving air
  15. wind — moving air
  16. fine — a penalty
  17. hand — help
  18. key — for a lock
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. band — a music group
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. game — a match
  24. key — in music

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