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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. bass — the fish
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. chest — a box
  5. chest — of your body
  6. court — of a king
  7. bark — to shout
  8. stem — of a plant
  9. field — for sport
  10. chest — of your body
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. field — farmland
  13. bass — the instrument
  14. bass — low music
  15. file — a tool
  16. stem — to come from
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. field — a subject
  19. court — for sport
  20. file — a line of people
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. court — of law
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. file — a document

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