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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. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  9. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  10. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  18. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — steady
  2. band — a music group
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. field — a subject
  5. snap — to click
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. dip — a sauce
  9. fork — to eat with
  10. band — a rubber band
  11. band — a ring
  12. cold — not warm
  13. dip — to dunk
  14. cell — a phone
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. field — farmland
  17. firm — decided
  18. dip — to sink
  19. field — for sport
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. fork — in a road
  22. firm — a company
  23. cell — in biology
  24. cold — an illness

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