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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 muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  16. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  17. The ________________ took off on time.
  18. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  24. He is an ace ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. track — a path
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. court — of law
  4. game — wild animals
  5. game — a match
  6. field — a subject
  7. wound — an injury
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. wound — an injury
  11. field — farmland
  12. clip — for paper
  13. court — of a king
  14. clip — to cut
  15. track — a song
  16. plane — in geometry
  17. plane — an aircraft
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. plane — a tool
  20. court — for sport
  21. clip — a video
  22. field — for sport
  23. track — to keep track
  24. pitcher — in baseball

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