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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 120 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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. bass — low music
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. race — a contest
  5. race — the arms race
  6. scale — in music
  7. game — wild animals
  8. field — for sport
  9. game — a match
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. bass — the fish
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. ground — the earth
  14. race — humankind
  15. ground — a position
  16. ground — crushed
  17. scale — size or range
  18. field — a subject

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