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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. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  2. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  4. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  5. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  6. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  7. That must've been a ________________.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  10. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. This piece is in a major ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — a big deal
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. deal — to handle
  4. deal — an agreement
  5. key — the most important part
  6. key — for a lock
  7. rush — a thrill
  8. field — farmland
  9. coach — pulled by horses
  10. rush — to hurry
  11. cold — not warm
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cold — an illness
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. field — a subject
  18. field — for sport
  19. rush — hurry
  20. game — a match
  21. game — wild animals
  22. bat — the animal
  23. key — in music
  24. bat — in an idiom

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