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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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Word bank
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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: row · roll · bound · mine · cold · cue · game · bowl

  1. That was a fun ________________.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  4. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  5. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  6. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  7. We're on a ________________ here.
  8. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. That was ________________ to happen.
  19. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  20. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. bowl — to roll
  4. cue — a signal
  5. roll — a list
  6. cue — a hint
  7. roll — on a roll
  8. cue — for pool
  9. roll — a cake
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. cold — an illness
  13. row — to paddle
  14. bound — obliged
  15. cold — not warm
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. mine — for digging
  18. bound — certain
  19. bound — tied together
  20. bowl — a dish
  21. row — a line
  22. bowl — a football final
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. game — wild animals

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