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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 120 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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  17. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  18. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. court — for sport
  3. pound — to hit hard
  4. court — of law
  5. last — to go on
  6. court — of a king
  7. field — a subject
  8. lash — to lash out
  9. field — farmland
  10. field — for sport
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. shower — rain
  13. band — a ring
  14. lash — a whip stroke
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. lash — an eyelash
  17. pound — a weight
  18. pound — for dogs
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. band — a music group
  21. last — finally
  22. mine — for digging
  23. shower — to wash
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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