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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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  6. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  10. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. staff — employees
  3. field — farmland
  4. land — a country
  5. club — for golf
  6. staff — employees
  7. row — a line
  8. field — for sport
  9. club — a group
  10. staff — a stick
  11. field — a subject
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. spring — a coil
  14. wound — an injury
  15. land — to come down
  16. land — ground
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. bat — the animal
  20. spring — the season
  21. spring — of water
  22. row — to paddle
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. club — for dancing

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