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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. The ________________ went through the wall.
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. last — final
  3. last — to go on
  4. nail — for a hammer
  5. last — finally
  6. ground — a position
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. ground — crushed
  10. field — a subject
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. ground — the earth
  13. field — farmland
  14. nail — on a finger
  15. squash — to crush
  16. cold — an illness
  17. squash — the sport
  18. field — for sport

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