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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  5. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. He works in a ________________ mill.
  13. We're on a ________________ here.
  14. We're almost out of ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  19. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. You don't need to ________________ round.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. roll — a cake
  3. court — of a king
  4. scale — for weighing
  5. current — happening now
  6. scale — size or range
  7. court — of law
  8. current — electric
  9. game — wild animals
  10. cold — an illness
  11. saw — the tool
  12. saw — the tool
  13. roll — on a roll
  14. pop — soda
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. cold — not warm
  17. saw — past of 'see'
  18. roll — a list
  19. current — of water
  20. game — a match
  21. pop — to visit
  22. scale — in music
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pop — 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