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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. The ________________ went through the wall.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. Don't do anything ________________.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  14. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. nail — for a hammer
  3. field — farmland
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. clip — a video
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. spring — of water
  9. rash — hasty
  10. spring — the season
  11. rash — a series
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. jam — to spread on bread
  14. nail — on a finger
  15. spring — a coil
  16. field — for sport
  17. bark — to shout
  18. clip — for paper
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. jam — in traffic
  21. field — a subject
  22. jam — a tight spot
  23. clip — to cut
  24. game — wild animals

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