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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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. There's no middle ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  14. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. You don't need to ________________ round.
  21. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. ground — crushed
  5. field — farmland
  6. field — a subject
  7. ground — a position
  8. kid — to tease
  9. field — for sport
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. kid — child
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. scale — in music
  14. scale — size or range
  15. pop — soda
  16. tube — a container
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. bat — the animal
  19. row — to paddle
  20. pop — to visit
  21. pop — music
  22. tube — the underground
  23. tube — in a tire
  24. ground — the earth

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