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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. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. The polar ice ________________ is melting.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a lid
  2. snap — to click
  3. bass — the fish
  4. chest — of your body
  5. drill — a practice
  6. race — the arms race
  7. field — a subject
  8. race — a contest
  9. ground — crushed
  10. ground — the earth
  11. bass — the instrument
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. drill — the tool
  14. bass — low music
  15. race — humankind
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. cap — a hat
  18. ground — a position
  19. chest — a box
  20. field — farmland
  21. field — for sport
  22. drill — army training
  23. chest — of your body
  24. cap — of ice

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