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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  4. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. sharp — clever
  3. snap — to speak sharply
  4. squash — to crush
  5. wind — moving air
  6. tear — to rip
  7. pit — a fruit stone
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. pit — in a race
  11. snap — to click
  12. field — for sport
  13. pit — a hole
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. wind — moving air
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. field — a subject
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. bat — the animal
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. tear — from crying
  23. tear — from crying
  24. field — farmland

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