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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: hand · bat · wave · field · tear · last

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  10. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. bat — the animal
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. hand — in cards
  5. tear — from crying
  6. wave — of the sea
  7. last — to go on
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. wave — a sudden rise
  10. wave — with your hand
  11. tear — from crying
  12. field — a subject
  13. last — final
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. field — farmland
  16. tear — to rip
  17. last — finally
  18. field — for sport

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