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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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. That must've been a ________________.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  13. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. field — a subject
  5. rush — to hurry
  6. march — music
  7. field — farmland
  8. content — happy
  9. rush — a thrill
  10. march — the month
  11. kid — child
  12. rush — hurry
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. field — for sport
  15. ground — crushed
  16. ground — a position
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. wind — moving air
  19. ground — the earth
  20. kid — to tease
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. march — the month
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. content — the amount

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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