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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. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. My father caught me by the ________________.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. kid — to tease
  3. cap — a lid
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. field — for sport
  6. march — the month
  7. field — a subject
  8. field — farmland
  9. cap — of ice
  10. swing — to play on
  11. march — music
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. kid — child
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. arm — part of the body
  18. shower — rain
  19. swing — in golf
  20. march — the month
  21. date — the fruit
  22. swing — music
  23. arm — a part of something
  24. shower — to wash

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