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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  11. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  12. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  18. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  19. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  20. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. snap — to click
  3. root — of a plant
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. field — for sport
  6. file — a line of people
  7. chest — a box
  8. content — the amount
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. bass — the fish
  11. object — an aim
  12. root — of a word
  13. content — happy
  14. file — a tool
  15. object — to protest
  16. chest — of your body
  17. bass — the instrument
  18. root — the cause
  19. object — a thing
  20. bass — low music
  21. chest — of your body
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. field — a subject
  24. file — a document

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