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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 120 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. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  21. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. snap — to click
  4. court — for sport
  5. cold — an illness
  6. rock — music
  7. field — farmland
  8. cold — not warm
  9. row — a line
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. rock — to move gently
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. hand — in cards
  16. rock — a stone
  17. court — of a king
  18. row — to paddle
  19. field — for sport
  20. pound — for dogs
  21. pound — a weight
  22. court — of law
  23. field — a subject
  24. hand — help

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