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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  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. row — a quarrel
  2. row — to paddle
  3. clip — for paper
  4. cap — a hat
  5. clip — a video
  6. cap — of ice
  7. clip — to cut
  8. last — to go on
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. row — a line
  11. cap — a lid
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. field — a subject
  14. field — farmland
  15. game — wild animals
  16. content — the amount
  17. content — happy
  18. game — a match
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. last — finally
  21. last — final
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. bat — the animal
  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