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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  10. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  19. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. march — the month
  3. clip — for paper
  4. spell — letters
  5. clip — to cut
  6. spell — a short time
  7. tube — a container
  8. land — to come down
  9. rest — what's left
  10. rest — what's left
  11. land — ground
  12. field — farmland
  13. kid — child
  14. land — a country
  15. kid — to tease
  16. tube — in a tire
  17. field — for sport
  18. rest — a break
  19. march — music
  20. march — the month
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. tube — the underground
  23. clip — a video
  24. spell — magic

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