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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 116 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  10. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  11. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. She's very handy with a ________________.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. He is an ace ________________.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. shower — rain
  4. pitch — a sales talk
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. rock — music
  7. field — a subject
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. rock — to move gently
  10. pitch — completely
  11. rock — a stone
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. pitch — a sports field
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. saw — the tool
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. field — farmland
  18. kid — child
  19. field — for sport
  20. bat — the animal
  21. pitcher — in baseball
  22. saw — the tool
  23. shower — to wash
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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