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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. The ________________ took off on time.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  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. plane — an aircraft
  2. field — a subject
  3. land — to come down
  4. land — ground
  5. bat — the animal
  6. wind — moving air
  7. content — the amount
  8. plane — a tool
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. field — farmland
  11. spell — a short time
  12. squash — to crush
  13. content — happy
  14. spell — letters
  15. squash — the vegetable
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. wind — moving air
  18. land — a country
  19. spell — magic
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. squash — the sport
  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