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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  18. The old man leaned on his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. game — a match
  3. clip — a video
  4. staff — employees
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. band — a ring
  7. clip — to cut
  8. content — happy
  9. field — for sport
  10. game — wild animals
  11. band — a music group
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. clip — for paper
  15. field — farmland
  16. content — the amount
  17. staff — employees
  18. staff — a stick

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