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

  1. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. He is an ace ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  11. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. field — farmland
  3. club — a group
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. pitcher — in baseball
  6. field — for sport
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. cold — not warm
  10. pitch — completely
  11. club — for golf
  12. wound — an injury
  13. pitch — a sales talk
  14. wound — an injury
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. field — a subject
  17. cold — an illness
  18. pitch — a sports field

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