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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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. The ________________ took off on time.
  20. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. field — a subject
  3. net — for catching
  4. tube — the underground
  5. field — for sport
  6. spring — of water
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. spring — the season
  9. wound — an injury
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. tube — a container
  12. court — of a king
  13. field — farmland
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. net — after costs
  16. band — a ring
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. court — for sport
  19. plane — an aircraft
  20. court — of law
  21. spring — a coil
  22. net — in sport
  23. band — a music group
  24. plane — 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