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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  6. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  7. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  8. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Have you met the new head ________________?
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  17. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. tube — the underground
  3. coach — pulled by horses
  4. field — a subject
  5. mate — a friend
  6. tube — in a tire
  7. lash — a whip stroke
  8. lash — an eyelash
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. field — for sport
  11. degree — temperature
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. mine — for digging
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. mate — to breed
  17. tube — a container
  18. bat — the animal
  19. lash — to lash out
  20. degree — from a university
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. degree — an amount
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. field — farmland

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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