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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. The ________________ market has crashed.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. perch — the fish
  3. kid — child
  4. field — for sport
  5. spring — the season
  6. spring — a coil
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. stock — goods
  9. stock — shares
  10. spring — of water
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. tear — from crying
  13. field — farmland
  14. tear — to rip
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. field — a subject
  17. kid — to tease
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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