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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I can't ________________ this cold.
  6. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. The ________________ went through the wall.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. stand — on your feet
  3. field — a subject
  4. cold — not warm
  5. stand — to bear
  6. nail — on a finger
  7. stock — goods
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. ground — the earth
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. stand — for spectators
  12. ground — crushed
  13. cold — an illness
  14. stock — shares
  15. field — for sport
  16. game — wild animals
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. field — farmland
  19. game — a match
  20. nail — for a hammer
  21. clip — to cut
  22. clip — a video
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. ground — a position

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