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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. He is an ace ________________.
  7. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. We're almost out of ________________.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  20. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. present — a gift
  3. court — for sport
  4. court — of law
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. pitcher — in baseball
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. content — the amount
  11. pop — to visit
  12. present — the time now
  13. game — wild animals
  14. cell — in biology
  15. present — there
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. pop — soda
  18. content — happy
  19. pitcher — a jug
  20. cell — a phone
  21. game — a match
  22. court — of a king
  23. pop — music
  24. cold — an illness

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