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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 ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  11. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  18. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. My mare is ________________ in color.
  24. The ________________ market has crashed.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. chest — a box
  3. clip — to cut
  4. degree — an amount
  5. bay — a part of the sea
  6. kid — child
  7. field — for sport
  8. bay — to keep at bay
  9. clip — a video
  10. toast — bread
  11. stock — a soup base
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. chest — of your body
  14. clip — for paper
  15. field — farmland
  16. stock — goods
  17. toast — a drink to someone
  18. toast — the most admired
  19. degree — from a university
  20. chest — of your body
  21. field — a subject
  22. degree — temperature
  23. bay — a horse colour
  24. stock — shares

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