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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  4. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  5. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  11. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  12. He is an ace ________________.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. Have you met the new head ________________?
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  24. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. hand — help
  3. kick — in football
  4. coach — pulled by horses
  5. kick — with a leg
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. hand — in cards
  8. ground — a position
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. bear — the animal
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. pitcher — in baseball
  13. wound — an injury
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. ground — the earth
  17. field — farmland
  18. wound — an injury
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. bear — to put up with
  22. field — a subject
  23. ground — crushed
  24. bear — the animal

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