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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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  6. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  12. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  17. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. field — for sport
  5. chip — to eat
  6. season — in sport
  7. court — of a king
  8. shower — rain
  9. bear — the animal
  10. clip — for paper
  11. season — of the year
  12. bear — to put up with
  13. bat — the animal
  14. court — for sport
  15. field — a subject
  16. chip — in a computer
  17. chip — for betting
  18. court — of law
  19. bear — the animal
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. shower — to wash
  22. field — farmland
  23. clip — a video
  24. clip — to cut

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