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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. Have you met the new head ________________?
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. field — for sport
  3. band — a music group
  4. row — a line
  5. field — a subject
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. coach — pulled by horses
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. snap — to click
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. wound — an injury
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. net — for catching
  16. wound — an injury
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. field — farmland
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. net — in sport
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. net — after costs
  23. band — a ring
  24. row — to paddle

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