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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. David sat on the ________________.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. swing — to play on
  3. march — the month
  4. current — electric
  5. spring — a coil
  6. spring — of water
  7. march — the month
  8. cold — not warm
  9. game — wild animals
  10. bank — for money
  11. band — a ring
  12. bank — for money
  13. swing — music
  14. cold — an illness
  15. swing — in golf
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. bank — of a river
  19. game — a match
  20. march — music
  21. band — a music group
  22. current — of water
  23. spring — the season
  24. current — happening now

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