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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. The King held a masked ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  23. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. court — of law
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. ball — a dance
  6. field — farmland
  7. bass — the fish
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. content — the amount
  10. bass — low music
  11. court — for sport
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. band — a music group
  14. field — for sport
  15. band — a ring
  16. field — a subject
  17. ball — a round shape
  18. court — of a king
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. stem — a stem cell
  21. content — happy
  22. ball — a great time
  23. stem — to come from
  24. content — videos and posts

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