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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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. game — a match
  5. row — to paddle
  6. row — a line
  7. bass — the fish
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. band — a music group
  10. spell — letters
  11. rock — to move gently
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. court — of law
  14. spell — a short time
  15. bass — the instrument
  16. spell — magic
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. court — of a king
  19. rock — a stone
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. band — a ring
  22. bass — low music
  23. game — wild animals
  24. court — for sport

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