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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 hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  11. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  12. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. game — wild animals
  3. field — farmland
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. track — a path
  8. bat — the animal
  9. game — a match
  10. bowl — to roll
  11. track — to keep track
  12. snap — to click
  13. field — for sport
  14. bowl — a football final
  15. cold — an illness
  16. hand — help
  17. hand — in cards
  18. bowl — a dish
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. track — a song
  24. field — a subject

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