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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. The ________________ went through the wall.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. tear — from crying
  3. object — an aim
  4. field — a subject
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. object — to protest
  7. wound — an injury
  8. object — a thing
  9. wound — an injury
  10. nail — for a hammer
  11. bat — the animal
  12. nail — for a hammer
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. field — for sport
  15. last — final
  16. field — farmland
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. last — finally
  19. tear — to rip
  20. nail — on a finger
  21. tear — from crying
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. hand — in cards
  24. last — to go on

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