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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  3. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  4. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  5. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  16. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  17. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  19. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  20. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. track — a song
  3. jam — in traffic
  4. drill — army training
  5. jam — a tight spot
  6. degree — from a university
  7. chest — of your body
  8. dip — to sink
  9. field — a subject
  10. degree — temperature
  11. field — farmland
  12. shower — rain
  13. drill — a practice
  14. degree — an amount
  15. dip — to dunk
  16. jam — to spread on bread
  17. dip — a sauce
  18. drill — the tool
  19. track — to keep track
  20. track — a path
  21. field — for sport
  22. chest — a box
  23. shower — to wash
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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