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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. kid — child
  3. bark — to shout
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. field — farmland
  8. field — for sport
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. capital — a city
  12. shower — rain
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. field — a subject
  16. chair — a leader
  17. bat — the animal
  18. shower — to wash
  19. chair — a professorship
  20. chest — of your body
  21. capital — money
  22. chest — a box
  23. chest — of your body
  24. bark — of a tree

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