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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  15. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  21. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  22. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. field — a subject
  3. racket — a loud noise
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. field — farmland
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. pitch — completely
  8. bore — gave birth
  9. mine — for digging
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. racket — for tennis
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. pitch — a sports field
  15. pitch — a sales talk
  16. hand — in cards
  17. hand — help
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. bore — to tire
  21. date — the fruit
  22. bore — to drill
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. field — for sport

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