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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. David sat on the ________________.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. kid — to tease
  4. spell — magic
  5. spring — the season
  6. file — a line of people
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. toast — the most admired
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. spell — a short time
  11. spring — of water
  12. swing — music
  13. game — a match
  14. mine — for digging
  15. toast — bread
  16. file — a document
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. spell — letters
  19. toast — a drink to someone
  20. kid — child
  21. spring — a coil
  22. game — wild animals
  23. file — a tool
  24. swing — in golf

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