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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 pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  11. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. The King held a masked ________________.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. ball — a great time
  3. march — the month
  4. fine — all right
  5. hand — help
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. scale — for weighing
  9. march — the month
  10. fine — a penalty
  11. ball — a round shape
  12. scale — in music
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. hand — in cards
  15. ball — a dance
  16. mine — for digging
  17. march — music
  18. file — a line of people
  19. file — a tool
  20. game — a match
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. fine — high quality
  23. file — a document
  24. scale — size or range

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