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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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. field — a subject
  3. firm — a company
  4. field — for sport
  5. firm — steady
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. content — happy
  9. cold — not warm
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. firm — decided
  12. capital — money
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. wax — in the ear
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. cold — an illness
  17. content — the amount
  18. wax — to grow
  19. field — farmland
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. snap — to click
  22. capital — a city
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. content — videos and posts

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