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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. There's no middle ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  16. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  22. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. field — farmland
  3. field — for sport
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. chest — of your body
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. wake — a trail
  9. game — a match
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. ground — crushed
  12. chest — of your body
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. wake — to stop sleeping
  16. bore — gave birth
  17. mine — for digging
  18. ground — the earth
  19. field — a subject
  20. chest — a box
  21. bore — to drill
  22. bore — to tire
  23. game — wild animals
  24. straw — a straw man

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