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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 stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. field — farmland
  3. bass — the instrument
  4. tear — from crying
  5. chest — a box
  6. wound — an injury
  7. bass — the fish
  8. spell — magic
  9. wound — an injury
  10. spell — a short time
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. capital — a city
  14. capital — money
  15. bass — low music
  16. tear — from crying
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. chest — of your body
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. chest — of your body
  22. spell — letters
  23. tear — to rip
  24. field — a subject

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