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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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  10. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. fine — all right
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. deal — a big deal
  5. wind — moving air
  6. spring — the season
  7. field — for sport
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. deal — an agreement
  10. fine — a penalty
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. field — farmland
  13. spring — a coil
  14. wind — moving air
  15. spring — of water
  16. deal — to handle
  17. field — a subject
  18. chest — of your body
  19. chest — a box
  20. fine — high quality
  21. chest — of your body
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. snap — to click
  24. bat — for 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