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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 116 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 ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. This piece is in a major ________________.
  8. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.

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

Answer key

  1. root — of a word
  2. kid — child
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. field — a subject
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. bass — low music
  7. key — in music
  8. key — the most important part
  9. bat — the animal
  10. file — a tool
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. kid — to tease
  13. field — farmland
  14. root — the cause
  15. fall — the season
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. key — for a lock
  18. file — a document
  19. field — for sport
  20. bass — the fish
  21. file — a line of people
  22. fall — to drop
  23. fall — to drop
  24. root — of a plant

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