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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  16. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  21. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  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. field — farmland
  2. field — a subject
  3. kid — to tease
  4. pass — a permit
  5. fall — to drop
  6. kid — child
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. fall — to drop
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. chest — of your body
  13. fall — the season
  14. chest — a box
  15. pitch — a sports field
  16. pass — to succeed
  17. chest — of your body
  18. mine — for digging
  19. shower — to wash
  20. pass — to spend time
  21. pitch — a sales talk
  22. pitch — completely
  23. shower — rain
  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