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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. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. I'll be taking the ________________.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — a container
  2. net — after costs
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. chest — of your body
  5. wound — an injury
  6. field — for sport
  7. chest — a box
  8. wound — an injury
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. chest — of your body
  11. tube — the underground
  12. cap — a lid
  13. cap — of ice
  14. hand — help
  15. net — in sport
  16. field — a subject
  17. bark — of a tree
  18. bark — to shout
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. net — for catching
  22. cap — a hat
  23. hand — in cards
  24. field — farmland

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