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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. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  2. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  13. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  14. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. hide — to keep secret
  2. club — a group
  3. stock — goods
  4. pitch — a sports field
  5. clip — to cut
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. field — farmland
  8. chest — of your body
  9. field — a subject
  10. stock — shares
  11. clip — a video
  12. pitch — a sales talk
  13. hide — to keep secret
  14. club — for dancing
  15. clip — for paper
  16. pitch — completely
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. mine — for digging
  19. chest — a box
  20. club — for golf
  21. chest — of your body
  22. hide — animal skin
  23. field — for sport
  24. stock — a soup base

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