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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. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  3. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. Have you met the new head ________________?
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. He is an ace ________________.
  18. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  19. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. hide — animal skin
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. court — of a king
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. bat — the animal
  8. kid — to tease
  9. file — a line of people
  10. court — for sport
  11. field — for sport
  12. field — farmland
  13. coach — pulled by horses
  14. court — of law
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. pitcher — in baseball
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. field — a subject
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. file — a tool
  23. file — a document
  24. kid — child

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