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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  6. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  10. That was ________________ to happen.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. False peace will not ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. track — to keep track
  4. field — for sport
  5. bound — obliged
  6. bound — tied together
  7. field — a subject
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. last — finally
  10. bound — certain
  11. content — happy
  12. cold — an illness
  13. track — a path
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. last — final
  16. mine — for digging
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. last — to go on
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — not warm
  23. track — a song
  24. content — the amount

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