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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 116 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. Have you met the new head ________________?
  11. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  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. kid — to tease
  2. field — a subject
  3. coach — pulled by horses
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. clip — to cut
  6. field — farmland
  7. bowl — to roll
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. bowl — a dish
  12. kid — child
  13. field — for sport
  14. bowl — a football final
  15. clip — for paper
  16. bat — the animal
  17. clip — a video
  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