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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. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  2. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. When was this ________________ built?
  7. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. spring — of water
  4. temple — side of the head
  5. court — for sport
  6. temple — a place of worship
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. spring — the season
  9. hide — animal skin
  10. file — a document
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. shower — to wash
  13. bass — the fish
  14. court — of a king
  15. file — a tool
  16. bass — low music
  17. court — of law
  18. field — a subject
  19. shower — rain
  20. spring — a coil
  21. file — a line of people
  22. field — farmland
  23. bass — the instrument
  24. field — for sport

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