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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 ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  11. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. Have you found your soul ________________?
  22. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. He is an ace ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. field — a subject
  3. last — finally
  4. last — final
  5. content — happy
  6. field — for sport
  7. dip — to dunk
  8. shower — rain
  9. mate — a friend
  10. mate — to breed
  11. dip — to sink
  12. spring — a coil
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. field — farmland
  15. shower — to wash
  16. dip — a sauce
  17. content — the amount
  18. last — to go on
  19. spring — of water
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. mate — a partner
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. spring — the season
  24. pitcher — in 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