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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  6. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  12. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  13. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The ________________ took off on time.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. field — farmland
  3. field — a subject
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. pitch — completely
  6. plane — in geometry
  7. mine — for digging
  8. chest — of your body
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. field — for sport
  11. plane — a tool
  12. pitch — a sales talk
  13. stock — a soup base
  14. stock — shares
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. plane — an aircraft
  17. chest — a box
  18. stock — goods

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