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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  9. It's one o'clock ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  16. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  17. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. My father caught me by the ________________.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. field — for sport
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. cold — an illness
  5. sharp — with an edge
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. cold — not warm
  8. pit — in a race
  9. sharp — exactly
  10. clip — to cut
  11. clip — for paper
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. arm — a part of something
  14. clip — a video
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. pit — a fruit stone
  17. pit — a hole
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. field — farmland
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. chair — a leader
  22. sharp — clever
  23. patient — calm and waiting
  24. cold — the Cold War

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