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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 stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  8. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  9. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  10. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  13. When was this ________________ built?
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. kid — to tease
  3. temple — a place of worship
  4. clip — to cut
  5. stem — of a plant
  6. field — a subject
  7. lean — to bend
  8. lean — to rest against
  9. stem — to come from
  10. stem — a stem cell
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. lean — thin
  13. temple — a place of worship
  14. clip — for paper
  15. temple — side of the head
  16. swing — in golf
  17. field — farmland
  18. branch — a division
  19. swing — music
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. swing — to play on
  22. branch — of a tree
  23. kid — child
  24. clip — a video

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