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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 get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. My father caught me by the ________________.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  16. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. I'd like to play a game of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — a thrill
  2. hand — in cards
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. field — farmland
  5. wind — moving air
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. hand — help
  8. field — for sport
  9. race — the arms race
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. kick — in football
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. squash — to crush
  14. field — a subject
  15. arm — a part of something
  16. kick — with a leg
  17. tear — from crying
  18. race — humankind
  19. race — a contest
  20. tear — to rip
  21. tear — from crying
  22. arm — part of the body
  23. wind — moving air
  24. squash — the sport

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