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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 116 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. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  15. David sat on the ________________.
  16. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — music
  2. kid — child
  3. fine — all right
  4. bat — the animal
  5. field — farmland
  6. swing — in golf
  7. kid — to tease
  8. fine — a penalty
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. field — for sport
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. race — a contest
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. scale — in music
  15. swing — to play on
  16. fine — high quality
  17. scale — size or range
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. field — a subject
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. race — the arms race
  23. race — humankind
  24. straw — a straw man

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