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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  4. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  14. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  21. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  24. She got the top ________________ in the exam.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. hand — in cards
  3. root — of a word
  4. rest — what's left
  5. field — for sport
  6. mark — a trace
  7. chest — of your body
  8. field — a subject
  9. hand — help
  10. court — of a king
  11. court — for sport
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. rest — a break
  14. mark — to pay attention
  15. field — farmland
  16. content — happy
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. rest — what's left
  19. chest — a box
  20. court — of law
  21. root — of a plant
  22. content — the amount
  23. root — the cause
  24. mark — a grade

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