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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 ball is in your ________________.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. David sat on the ________________.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  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. court — for sport
  2. hand — in cards
  3. file — a document
  4. file — a line of people
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. swing — music
  7. court — of law
  8. content — happy
  9. swing — to play on
  10. court — of a king
  11. land — to come down
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. spell — a short time
  14. file — a tool
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. land — ground
  17. swing — in golf
  18. spell — magic
  19. content — the amount
  20. hand — help
  21. scale — in music
  22. land — a country
  23. spell — letters
  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