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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  7. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  15. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  21. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. wound — an injury
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. last — final
  5. cold — not warm
  6. object — an aim
  7. board — a committee
  8. last — to go on
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. branch — a division
  11. object — a thing
  12. field — a subject
  13. row — a line
  14. board — a flat piece
  15. object — to protest
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. last — finally
  20. branch — of a tree
  21. board — to get on
  22. field — for sport
  23. wound — an injury
  24. row — to paddle

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