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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 120 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'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  5. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The ball is in your ________________.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. court — of a king
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. fine — a penalty
  5. fork — to eat with
  6. land — a country
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. shower — to wash
  10. land — to come down
  11. fine — high quality
  12. file — a document
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. file — a tool
  15. file — a line of people
  16. court — of law
  17. fine — all right
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. fork — a garden tool
  20. shower — rain
  21. fork — in a road
  22. bat — the animal
  23. court — for sport
  24. bat — for baseball

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