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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  6. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. I'll be taking the ________________.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. Don't do anything ________________.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. foot — a measure
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. field — farmland
  5. rash — a series
  6. tube — in a tire
  7. field — a subject
  8. rash — on the skin
  9. hand — in cards
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. foot — part of the body
  12. wind — moving air
  13. tube — the underground
  14. wind — moving air
  15. tube — a container
  16. shower — rain
  17. foot — the bottom
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. game — wild animals
  20. hand — help
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. rash — hasty
  23. field — for sport
  24. shower — to wash

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