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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

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

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  7. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  11. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. cold — an illness
  3. field — a subject
  4. wind — moving air
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. rest — what's left
  7. mark — a grade
  8. rest — a break
  9. last — to go on
  10. mark — to pay attention
  11. mark — a trace
  12. last — final
  13. wind — moving air
  14. field — farmland
  15. rest — what's left
  16. field — for sport
  17. last — finally
  18. cold — the Cold War

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