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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 do anything ________________.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  10. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. last — final
  3. last — finally
  4. swing — music
  5. clip — a video
  6. swing — in golf
  7. field — a subject
  8. field — for sport
  9. rash — a series
  10. pitch — a sports field
  11. field — farmland
  12. swing — to play on
  13. clip — to cut
  14. pitch — completely
  15. clip — for paper
  16. shower — to wash
  17. rash — on the skin
  18. last — to go on
  19. kid — to tease
  20. kid — child
  21. pitch — a sales talk
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. shower — rain

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