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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 116 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 girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. We're almost out of ________________.
  15. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. You don't need to ________________ round.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. hand — in cards
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. field — for sport
  5. pass — a permit
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. pass — to spend time
  8. row — to paddle
  9. field — farmland
  10. hand — help
  11. pass — to succeed
  12. field — a subject
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. pop — soda
  15. pop — music
  16. mine — for digging
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. game — a match
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. clip — for paper
  21. pop — to visit
  22. clip — to cut
  23. game — wild animals
  24. clip — a video

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