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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: tear · lie · sharp · field · wound · game · cell · hand

  1. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. game — wild animals
  4. cell — in biology
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. wound — an injury
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. game — a match
  10. cell — a phone
  11. wound — an injury
  12. tear — from crying
  13. field — farmland
  14. tear — from crying
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. hand — help
  17. lie — to recline
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. tear — to rip
  20. lie — an untruth
  21. field — for sport
  22. sharp — clever
  23. hand — in cards
  24. lie — an untruth

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