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

Word bank: bass · foot · chest · clip · bay · field · tear · kid

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. My mare is ________________ in color.
  3. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  4. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  5. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. bay — a horse colour
  3. bay — a part of the sea
  4. bass — low music
  5. bay — to keep at bay
  6. chest — of your body
  7. field — for sport
  8. chest — a box
  9. kid — child
  10. clip — to cut
  11. foot — the bottom
  12. field — a subject
  13. clip — a video
  14. foot — part of the body
  15. bass — the fish
  16. clip — for paper
  17. chest — of your body
  18. bass — the instrument
  19. tear — from crying
  20. foot — a measure
  21. tear — to rip
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. kid — to tease
  24. tear — from crying

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