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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. The ________________ took off on time.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  23. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  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. game — a kind of play
  2. march — music
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. ground — crushed
  5. bat — the animal
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. capital — a city
  8. ground — a position
  9. march — the month
  10. game — wild animals
  11. game — a match
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. plane — an aircraft
  14. hand — in cards
  15. hand — help
  16. march — the month
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. capital — money
  19. season — in sport
  20. ground — the earth
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. season — of the year
  23. plane — a tool
  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