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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 124 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 office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  2. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  17. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  18. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  19. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  24. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. staff — a stick
  3. field — farmland
  4. field — for sport
  5. spring — the season
  6. track — to keep track
  7. clip — to cut
  8. root — of a plant
  9. clip — a video
  10. field — a subject
  11. track — a path
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. kid — child
  15. kid — to tease
  16. root — the cause
  17. pound — for dogs
  18. pound — a weight
  19. staff — employees
  20. clip — for paper
  21. spring — of water
  22. spring — a coil
  23. track — a song
  24. root — of a word

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