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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. pound — a weight
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. mine — for digging
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. march — music
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. march — the month
  10. pound — for dogs
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. shower — to wash
  13. shower — rain
  14. game — a match
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. field — a subject
  17. game — wild animals
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. field — farmland
  20. chest — of your body
  21. chest — of your body
  22. bat — the animal
  23. march — the month
  24. chest — a box

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