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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. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  9. What do you think of the new ________________?
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cabinet — a cupboard
  2. hand — help
  3. scale — in music
  4. field — a subject
  5. mate — a partner
  6. mate — to breed
  7. hand — in cards
  8. cabinet — ministers
  9. cabinet — ministers
  10. field — farmland
  11. mate — a friend
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. bass — low music
  14. field — for sport
  15. spring — of water
  16. bass — the fish
  17. spring — a coil
  18. land — a country
  19. bass — the instrument
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. land — ground
  22. land — to come down
  23. spring — the season
  24. scale — size or range

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