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

  1. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  11. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  16. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  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. spell — letters
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. field — for sport
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. field — a subject
  6. field — farmland
  7. spell — a short time
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. cold — an illness
  10. leaves — of a tree
  11. leaves — to go away
  12. cold — not warm
  13. snap — to click
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. date — the fruit
  16. leaves — lets stay
  17. spell — magic
  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