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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  14. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  15. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  16. That must've been a ________________.
  17. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. stem — to come from
  3. rush — hurry
  4. field — for sport
  5. hand — in cards
  6. field — a subject
  7. hand — help
  8. bass — low music
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. bass — the fish
  14. deal — a big deal
  15. deal — to handle
  16. rush — a thrill
  17. rush — to hurry
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. file — a line of people
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. bark — to shout
  22. deal — an agreement
  23. file — a tool
  24. file — a document

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