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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. Where did you ________________ them?
  3. Did you ________________ the meat?
  4. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. Don't do anything ________________.
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  18. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  19. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. mug — to rob
  3. season — to add flavour
  4. kick — with a leg
  5. spring — a coil
  6. rash — hasty
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. bat — the animal
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. spring — the season
  11. rash — on the skin
  12. field — a subject
  13. kid — child
  14. rash — a series
  15. spring — of water
  16. kid — to tease
  17. kick — in football
  18. mug — a cup
  19. season — in sport
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. field — for sport
  22. mug — a face
  23. season — of the year
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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