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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. I'll be taking the ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  14. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  15. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. field — farmland
  3. field — a subject
  4. content — happy
  5. can — a tin
  6. row — a line
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. can — a tin
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. wound — an injury
  11. tube — the underground
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. tube — a container
  14. tube — in a tire
  15. can — to be able to
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. wound — an injury
  18. content — the amount
  19. kid — to tease
  20. kid — child
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. scale — in music
  23. row — to paddle
  24. scale — size or range

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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