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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: tear · pop · straw · field · spell · squash · wind · deal

  1. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — an agreement
  2. tear — from crying
  3. tear — to rip
  4. field — farmland
  5. deal — a big deal
  6. squash — to crush
  7. squash — the sport
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. tear — from crying
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. pop — to visit
  12. field — a subject
  13. deal — to handle
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. squash — the vegetable
  16. spell — a short time
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. pop — soda
  19. field — for sport
  20. spell — letters
  21. wind — moving air
  22. wind — moving air
  23. pop — music
  24. spell — magic

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