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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: club · rule · mark · wound · land · kid · ball · bat

  1. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  7. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  8. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. land — ground
  3. mark — a trace
  4. kid — child
  5. wound — an injury
  6. mark — a grade
  7. rule — government
  8. mark — to pay attention
  9. ball — a dance
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. club — for dancing
  12. kid — to tease
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. rule — a law
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. land — to come down
  17. club — for golf
  18. ball — a great time
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. club — a group
  21. rule — to rule out
  22. wound — an injury
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. land — a country

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