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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. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  4. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  11. Have you settled on a ________________?
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  18. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. field — for sport
  3. date — the fruit
  4. bark — to shout
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. ball — a round shape
  7. field — a subject
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. ball — a dance
  13. file — a tool
  14. file — a document
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. ball — a great time
  18. arm — a part of something
  19. kid — to tease
  20. kid — child
  21. field — farmland
  22. wax — to grow
  23. wax — in the ear
  24. file — a line of people

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