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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. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  2. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  3. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. When was this ________________ built?
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. bear — to put up with
  3. pound — to hit hard
  4. wound — an injury
  5. chest — a box
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. field — for sport
  9. wound — an injury
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. hand — in cards
  12. pound — a weight
  13. field — a subject
  14. bear — the animal
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. bear — the animal
  17. chest — of your body
  18. temple — side of the head
  19. field — farmland
  20. kick — in football
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. hand — help
  23. chest — of your body
  24. kick — with a leg

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