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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 116 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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  7. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  17. I'll be taking the ________________.
  18. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  19. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. spring — a coil
  4. clip — a video
  5. clip — to cut
  6. tube — in a tire
  7. vault — in gymnastics
  8. clip — for paper
  9. spring — of water
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. fine — all right
  12. field — farmland
  13. vault — an arched ceiling
  14. spring — the season
  15. scale — size or range
  16. fine — a penalty
  17. tube — the underground
  18. fine — high quality
  19. scale — for weighing
  20. scale — in music
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. vault — a safe
  23. field — for sport
  24. tube — a container

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