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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. My mare is ________________ in color.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  11. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  20. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  23. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. field — a subject
  3. prune — to trim
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. club — a group
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. bay — a horse colour
  8. wind — moving air
  9. cold — an illness
  10. can — a tin
  11. bay — to keep at bay
  12. prune — to trim
  13. field — for sport
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. wind — moving air
  16. bat — the animal
  17. club — for golf
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. can — to be able to
  20. bay — a part of the sea
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. club — for dancing
  23. can — a tin
  24. cold — not warm

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