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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. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — music
  2. bat — the animal
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. field — a subject
  5. kid — child
  6. field — for sport
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. tear — from crying
  9. pop — soda
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. pop — to visit
  12. field — farmland
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. kid — to tease
  15. tear — to rip
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. tear — from crying

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