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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. The ________________ took off on time.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  10. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  11. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  12. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  24. This piece is in a major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. wound — an injury
  3. tear — from crying
  4. plane — an aircraft
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. tear — to rip
  8. field — a subject
  9. key — the most important part
  10. track — to keep track
  11. track — a path
  12. plane — in geometry
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. plane — a tool
  15. wound — an injury
  16. tear — from crying
  17. track — a song
  18. shower — rain
  19. shower — to wash
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. field — for sport
  23. key — for a lock
  24. key — in music

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