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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. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  6. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. He is an ace ________________.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  20. This piece is in a major ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. foot — the bottom
  2. chest — of your body
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. file — a line of people
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. foot — part of the body
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. field — a subject
  9. key — for a lock
  10. content — happy
  11. foot — a measure
  12. wind — moving air
  13. pitcher — in baseball
  14. content — the amount
  15. chest — a box
  16. wind — moving air
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. chest — of your body
  19. key — the most important part
  20. key — in music
  21. file — a document
  22. field — farmland
  23. field — for sport
  24. file — a tool

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