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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. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. My father caught me by the ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  18. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. rest — what's left
  2. field — a subject
  3. spring — the season
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. pitch — completely
  6. field — for sport
  7. clip — to cut
  8. spring — a coil
  9. game — a match
  10. pitch — a sales talk
  11. field — farmland
  12. pitch — a sports field
  13. spring — of water
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. mine — for digging
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. arm — a part of something
  18. rest — a break
  19. clip — for paper
  20. game — wild animals
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. rest — what's left
  24. clip — a video

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