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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  18. He is an ace ________________.
  19. That must've been a ________________.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. scale — size or range
  5. shower — to wash
  6. net — after costs
  7. rush — hurry
  8. net — in sport
  9. rush — to hurry
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. net — for catching
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. mine — for digging
  16. shower — rain
  17. fan — to cool the air
  18. pitcher — in baseball
  19. rush — a thrill
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. field — for sport
  23. field — a subject
  24. scale — in music

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