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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  5. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. How do you ________________ your surname?
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. rest — a break
  3. game — a match
  4. rest — what's left
  5. spell — a short time
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. field — farmland
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. tear — from crying
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. rest — what's left
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. tear — from crying
  15. spell — letters
  16. degree — from a university
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. degree — temperature
  20. field — a subject
  21. degree — an amount
  22. spell — magic
  23. field — for sport
  24. tear — to rip

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