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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 ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  13. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  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. court — of law
  2. bat — the animal
  3. safe — out of danger
  4. fall — to drop
  5. fall — the season
  6. pit — in a race
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. court — for sport
  9. fall — to drop
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. field — a subject
  12. pit — a fruit stone
  13. safe — out of danger
  14. court — of a king
  15. field — farmland
  16. safe — a strongbox
  17. file — a tool
  18. land — to come down
  19. file — a document
  20. pit — a hole
  21. land — ground
  22. file — a line of people
  23. land — a country
  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