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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cap · kid · game · ground · bowl · mark · cold · pit

  1. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  8. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  9. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  10. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. pit — a hole
  3. cold — an illness
  4. mark — to pay attention
  5. cold — not warm
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. cap — of ice
  8. mark — a trace
  9. bowl — to roll
  10. pit — in a race
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. pit — a fruit stone
  13. ground — crushed
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cap — a lid
  16. game — a match
  17. mark — a grade
  18. ground — a position
  19. game — wild animals
  20. bowl — a football final
  21. ground — the earth
  22. kid — child
  23. kid — to tease
  24. cap — a hat

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