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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 ball is in your ________________.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. I'll be taking the ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. tear — to rip
  3. court — of a king
  4. last — finally
  5. field — a subject
  6. kick — with a leg
  7. field — farmland
  8. tear — from crying
  9. squash — the sport
  10. last — final
  11. tube — in a tire
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. tube — a container
  14. last — to go on
  15. prune — to trim
  16. prune — to trim
  17. squash — to crush
  18. tube — the underground
  19. tear — from crying
  20. court — of law
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. kick — in football
  23. field — for sport
  24. kick — a thrill

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