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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 116 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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. That must've been a ________________.
  8. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  15. How do you ________________ your surname?
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. field — a subject
  3. tube — a container
  4. tube — the underground
  5. rush — hurry
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. rush — a thrill
  8. club — a group
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. field — for sport
  11. game — wild animals
  12. spell — magic
  13. spell — a short time
  14. rush — to hurry
  15. spell — letters
  16. field — farmland
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. row — a line
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. wound — an injury
  21. game — a match
  22. wound — an injury
  23. club — for golf
  24. row — to paddle

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