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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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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: field · pitcher · club · straw · foot · kid · hand · row

  1. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. He is an ace ________________.
  18. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. foot — a measure
  4. hand — in cards
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. kid — child
  7. field — farmland
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. foot — the bottom
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. hand — help
  13. club — for dancing
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. foot — part of the body
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. pitcher — in baseball
  18. club — for golf
  19. kid — to tease
  20. row — a line
  21. field — for sport
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. row — to paddle
  24. club — a group

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