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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. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. Have you settled on a ________________?
  16. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — on the skin
  2. club — for golf
  3. field — farmland
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. row — to paddle
  6. swing — music
  7. date — on the calendar
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. field — for sport
  10. face — to point toward
  11. date — the fruit
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. mine — for digging
  14. rash — hasty
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. club — for dancing
  17. swing — in golf
  18. swing — to play on
  19. rash — a series
  20. club — a group
  21. face — part of the head
  22. row — a line
  23. field — a subject
  24. face — to confront

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