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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  15. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. How do you ________________ your surname?
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. swing — music
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. squash — the vegetable
  5. cold — not warm
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. scale — size or range
  8. band — a music group
  9. scale — in music
  10. squash — the sport
  11. hand — help
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. mate — to breed
  14. mate — a friend
  15. swing — in golf
  16. hand — in cards
  17. spell — a short time
  18. band — a ring
  19. spell — letters
  20. cold — an illness
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. squash — to crush
  23. spell — magic
  24. swing — to play on

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