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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. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  5. Don't do anything ________________.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  9. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. Did you ________________ the button?
  14. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. He is an ace ________________.
  18. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.

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

Answer key

  1. vault — a safe
  2. kid — child
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. press — a publisher
  5. rash — hasty
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. field — farmland
  8. press — newspapers
  9. foot — the bottom
  10. cell — a phone
  11. kid — to tease
  12. field — for sport
  13. press — to push
  14. foot — a measure
  15. rash — a series
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. pitcher — in baseball
  18. foot — part of the body
  19. field — a subject
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. vault — an arched ceiling
  22. cell — in biology
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. vault — in gymnastics

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