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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  6. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  14. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. leaves — to go away
  3. field — farmland
  4. last — final
  5. leaves — lets stay
  6. fall — to drop
  7. cold — an illness
  8. drill — army training
  9. mate — to breed
  10. cold — not warm
  11. drill — the tool
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. can — a tin
  14. leaves — of a tree
  15. last — finally
  16. last — to go on
  17. mate — a friend
  18. can — to be able to
  19. field — a subject
  20. drill — a practice
  21. field — for sport
  22. fall — to drop
  23. can — a tin
  24. fall — the season

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