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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. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. He works in a ________________ mill.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  17. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. wound — an injury
  3. lean — to bend
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. pitch — a sales talk
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. bark — a dog's sound
  9. field — for sport
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. saw — the tool
  13. field — a subject
  14. hand — help
  15. bark — to shout
  16. lean — to rest against
  17. pitch — completely
  18. wound — an injury
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. hand — in cards
  21. lean — thin
  22. field — farmland
  23. bat — the animal
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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