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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  10. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. last — final
  3. tear — from crying
  4. deal — an agreement
  5. last — finally
  6. field — a subject
  7. spell — letters
  8. game — a match
  9. deal — to handle
  10. deal — a big deal
  11. tear — from crying
  12. field — farmland
  13. last — to go on
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. tear — to rip
  16. spell — a short time
  17. game — wild animals
  18. spell — magic

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