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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  13. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  14. Have you met the new head ________________?
  15. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  20. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. wound — an injury
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. file — a tool
  5. band — a ring
  6. band — a music group
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. field — a subject
  9. lean — to rest against
  10. field — farmland
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. lean — thin
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. mate — to breed
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. file — a document
  18. wound — an injury
  19. lean — to bend
  20. mate — a friend
  21. field — for sport
  22. bat — the animal
  23. file — a line of people
  24. bat — in an idiom

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