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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 120 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. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  2. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. You don't need to ________________ round.
  19. That was ________________ to happen.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. We're almost out of ________________.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. cue — a signal
  2. spell — a short time
  3. chest — of your body
  4. bat — the animal
  5. pop — music
  6. field — for sport
  7. cue — a hint
  8. cell — a phone
  9. field — a subject
  10. cue — for pool
  11. field — farmland
  12. bound — tied together
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. cell — in biology
  16. bound — obliged
  17. chest — a box
  18. pop — to visit
  19. bound — certain
  20. chest — of your body
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. spell — magic
  23. pop — soda
  24. spell — letters

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