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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. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  8. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  17. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  24. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. lash — a whip stroke
  4. cell — a phone
  5. field — for sport
  6. clip — to cut
  7. rock — music
  8. rock — to move gently
  9. clip — a video
  10. field — farmland
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. wound — an injury
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. lash — an eyelash
  15. field — a subject
  16. rock — a stone
  17. fine — a penalty
  18. bat — the animal
  19. cell — in biology
  20. wound — an injury
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. clip — for paper
  23. lash — to lash out
  24. fine — high quality

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