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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 120 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 girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  6. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  7. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  23. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. wind — moving air
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. pass — to succeed
  6. pass — a permit
  7. pass — to spend time
  8. hand — help
  9. hand — in cards
  10. dip — to dunk
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. row — to paddle
  13. field — a subject
  14. field — for sport
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. dip — to sink
  17. wind — moving air
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. root — of a word
  20. field — farmland
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. root — of a plant
  23. root — the cause
  24. kick — in football

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