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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. Have you found your soul ________________?
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. field — farmland
  3. mate — a partner
  4. mate — a friend
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. spring — of water
  8. kid — to tease
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. field — a subject
  11. mate — to breed
  12. spring — a coil
  13. spring — the season
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. kid — child
  16. land — ground
  17. land — to come down
  18. land — a country

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