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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 play ________________ in a jazz band.
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  17. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  20. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  21. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the instrument
  2. bass — low music
  3. kid — child
  4. field — for sport
  5. field — a subject
  6. bass — the fish
  7. file — a line of people
  8. drill — the tool
  9. file — a tool
  10. content — the amount
  11. root — of a plant
  12. field — farmland
  13. bore — to drill
  14. content — happy
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. root — of a word
  17. drill — army training
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. root — the cause
  20. bore — gave birth
  21. bore — to tire
  22. kid — to tease
  23. drill — a practice
  24. file — a document

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