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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. He is an ace ________________.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. The King held a masked ________________.
  15. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  16. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  17. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  18. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. pitcher — in baseball
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. hand — in cards
  5. wound — an injury
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. field — a subject
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. hand — help
  11. field — for sport
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. ball — a dance
  15. bowl — to roll
  16. ball — a round shape
  17. ball — a great time
  18. bowl — a football final
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. field — farmland
  22. wound — an injury
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. mine — an explosive

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