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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 120 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. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  2. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  4. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. Did you ________________ the meat?
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  12. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. season — in sport
  4. vault — a safe
  5. tube — the underground
  6. vault — an arched ceiling
  7. field — a subject
  8. tube — a container
  9. season — to add flavour
  10. clip — for paper
  11. stick — a piece of wood
  12. season — of the year
  13. field — farmland
  14. stick — to attach or keep to
  15. clip — to cut
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. clip — a video
  19. hand — help
  20. vault — in gymnastics
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. hand — in cards
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. field — for sport

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