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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  17. Don't do anything ________________.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. spring — of water
  4. rash — on the skin
  5. row — to paddle
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. spring — a coil
  8. spring — the season
  9. board — to get on
  10. field — farmland
  11. court — of a king
  12. bat — the animal
  13. field — a subject
  14. band — a ring
  15. court — of law
  16. board — a flat piece
  17. rash — hasty
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. board — a committee
  20. band — a music group
  21. row — a line
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. rash — a series
  24. field — for sport

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