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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  8. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  9. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. land — to come down
  4. field — for sport
  5. ball — a great time
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. rule — a law
  8. ball — a round shape
  9. rule — to rule out
  10. field — a subject
  11. net — for catching
  12. ball — a dance
  13. march — music
  14. spring — of water
  15. spring — a coil
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. march — the month
  18. march — the month
  19. rule — government
  20. land — a country
  21. net — after costs
  22. spring — the season
  23. net — in sport
  24. land — ground

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