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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 120 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 stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  10. Have you met the new head ________________?
  11. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  12. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. I can't ________________ this cold.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  19. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  20. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  23. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. bass — the instrument
  4. field — farmland
  5. file — a tool
  6. field — a subject
  7. pound — a weight
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. bass — the fish
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. stand — on your feet
  12. coach — pulled by horses
  13. cold — not warm
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. stand — to bear
  16. cold — an illness
  17. file — a document
  18. stand — for spectators
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. pound — for dogs
  21. bark — to shout
  22. bass — low music
  23. pound — to hit hard
  24. file — a line of people

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