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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  3. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  4. She's very handy with a ________________.
  5. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. Have you settled on a ________________?
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  17. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. He is an ace ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. dip — to sink
  3. date — the fruit
  4. saw — the tool
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. prune — to trim
  8. chest — of your body
  9. tear — from crying
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. field — farmland
  12. saw — past of 'see'
  13. chest — of your body
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. chest — a box
  16. dip — to dunk
  17. prune — to trim
  18. tear — from crying
  19. dip — a sauce
  20. saw — the tool
  21. tear — to rip
  22. field — for sport
  23. date — on the calendar
  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