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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. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  9. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  10. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. Don't do anything ________________.
  18. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — on the skin
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. bat — the animal
  4. root — of a word
  5. game — a match
  6. root — of a plant
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. fork — a garden tool
  9. date — the fruit
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. game — wild animals
  12. root — the cause
  13. race — a contest
  14. rash — a series
  15. race — humankind
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. rash — hasty
  18. fork — to eat with
  19. land — ground
  20. land — to come down
  21. fork — in a road
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. land — a country
  24. race — the arms race

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