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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 116 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. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  2. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  8. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  9. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  14. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. dip — a sauce
  2. deal — an agreement
  3. field — a subject
  4. ground — a position
  5. hand — in cards
  6. field — farmland
  7. deal — to handle
  8. racket — for tennis
  9. racket — a loud noise
  10. ground — the earth
  11. wound — an injury
  12. ground — crushed
  13. dip — to dunk
  14. deal — a big deal
  15. field — for sport
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. hand — help
  18. racket — for tennis
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. dip — to sink
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. scale — in music
  23. scale — size or range
  24. wound — an injury

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