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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. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  2. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. When was this ________________ built?
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  16. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — in football
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. field — a subject
  5. temple — a place of worship
  6. game — wild animals
  7. field — for sport
  8. spring — the season
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. field — farmland
  11. wake — a trail
  12. game — a match
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. temple — a place of worship
  16. temple — side of the head
  17. spring — a coil
  18. spring — of water
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. content — happy
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. content — the amount

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