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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. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  6. Did you ________________ the button?
  7. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. content — the amount
  3. field — for sport
  4. field — farmland
  5. stem — to come from
  6. press — to push
  7. dip — to sink
  8. wound — an injury
  9. dip — to dunk
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. press — a publisher
  14. bat — the animal
  15. band — a ring
  16. field — a subject
  17. press — newspapers
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. wound — an injury
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. content — happy

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