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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 120 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. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  4. Have you met the new head ________________?
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  24. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. field — for sport
  3. kick — in football
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. row — a line
  6. march — music
  7. field — a subject
  8. kick — with a leg
  9. field — farmland
  10. stick — to attach or keep to
  11. march — the month
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. clip — a video
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. clip — for paper
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. clip — to cut
  19. march — the month
  20. kick — a thrill
  21. bat — the animal
  22. row — to paddle
  23. stick — a piece of wood
  24. coach — pulled by horses

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