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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. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  2. David sat on the ________________.
  3. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  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. branch — a division
  2. swing — to play on
  3. swing — music
  4. field — farmland
  5. chest — a box
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. game — a match
  10. field — a subject
  11. content — the amount
  12. content — happy
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. bat — the animal
  15. game — wild animals
  16. chest — of your body
  17. chest — of your body
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. kick — in football
  21. swing — in golf
  22. kick — a thrill
  23. bat — in an idiom
  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