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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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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: race · hide · wound · roll · field · present · snap · content

  1. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  11. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  12. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. We're on a ________________ here.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. present — a gift
  2. race — a contest
  3. content — happy
  4. roll — a list
  5. hide — animal skin
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. race — humankind
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. field — farmland
  10. roll — a cake
  11. hide — to keep secret
  12. hide — to keep secret
  13. content — the amount
  14. present — there
  15. race — the arms race
  16. wound — an injury
  17. present — the time now
  18. field — for sport
  19. roll — on a roll
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. field — a subject
  22. wound — an injury
  23. snap — to click
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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