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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 116 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: kid · field · rush · race · mate · mine · clip · wake

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  3. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. That must've been a ________________.
  15. Have you found your soul ________________?
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. Take your time. There's no ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. wake — to stop sleeping
  3. mate — to breed
  4. clip — to cut
  5. race — a contest
  6. field — farmland
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. race — the arms race
  10. mate — a friend
  11. rush — to hurry
  12. mine — for digging
  13. kid — to tease
  14. rush — a thrill
  15. mate — a partner
  16. field — for sport
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. clip — for paper
  19. clip — a video
  20. wake — before a funeral
  21. field — a subject
  22. wake — a trail
  23. race — humankind
  24. rush — hurry

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