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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  18. Have you found your soul ________________?
  19. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  20. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  24. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. sharp — clever
  3. clip — for paper
  4. field — farmland
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. racket — a loud noise
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. mate — to breed
  9. clip — to cut
  10. clip — a video
  11. field — a subject
  12. spring — the season
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. row — a line
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. spring — a coil
  17. racket — for tennis
  18. mate — a partner
  19. racket — for tennis
  20. sharp — with an edge
  21. row — to paddle
  22. spring — of water
  23. trunk — of an elephant
  24. mate — a friend

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