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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. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  8. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  11. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — a big deal
  2. tear — from crying
  3. bass — the fish
  4. deal — an agreement
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. field — for sport
  7. deal — to handle
  8. fork — to eat with
  9. file — a tool
  10. fork — a garden tool
  11. fork — in a road
  12. ground — crushed
  13. tear — to rip
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. ground — a position
  16. file — a document
  17. bass — the instrument
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. ground — the earth
  20. file — a line of people
  21. field — farmland
  22. field — a subject
  23. bass — low music
  24. tear — from crying

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