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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. Did you ________________ the meat?
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. I'll be taking the ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  21. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. tube — a container
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. court — of law
  5. land — a country
  6. season — of the year
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. land — to come down
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. season — to add flavour
  11. band — a ring
  12. wake — before a funeral
  13. land — ground
  14. tube — in a tire
  15. field — farmland
  16. tube — the underground
  17. field — for sport
  18. court — for sport
  19. game — a match
  20. wake — a trail
  21. season — in sport
  22. game — wild animals
  23. band — a music group
  24. court — of a king

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