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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 pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. Where did you ________________ them?
  9. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. field — for sport
  3. mug — a face
  4. content — happy
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. content — the amount
  8. mug — to rob
  9. mug — a cup
  10. chest — of your body
  11. chest — a box
  12. field — farmland
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. game — a match
  15. bat — the animal
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. mine — for digging
  18. chest — of your body
  19. prune — to trim
  20. field — a subject
  21. prune — to trim
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. bat — for baseball

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