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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 124 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. That must've been a ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  5. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  6. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  7. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  16. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. The light ________________ burned out.
  21. I've got to change the light ________________.
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — a thrill
  2. clip — to cut
  3. field — farmland
  4. rush — to hurry
  5. deal — an agreement
  6. deal — a big deal
  7. deal — to handle
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. rush — hurry
  11. field — a subject
  12. tube — the underground
  13. bulb — of a plant
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. tube — a container
  16. date — the fruit
  17. cell — a phone
  18. field — for sport
  19. clip — a video
  20. bulb — for light
  21. bulb — for light
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. clip — for paper
  24. cell — in biology

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