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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. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. last — finally
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. bass — the instrument
  5. spell — letters
  6. last — final
  7. file — a document
  8. shower — to wash
  9. kid — child
  10. shower — rain
  11. kid — to tease
  12. drill — the tool
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. field — a subject
  15. drill — army training
  16. spell — magic
  17. spell — a short time
  18. drill — a practice
  19. last — to go on
  20. file — a line of people
  21. bass — low music
  22. field — for sport
  23. file — a tool
  24. field — farmland

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