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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. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  2. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  3. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  8. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  17. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  18. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — to eat
  2. fine — all right
  3. ground — the earth
  4. field — farmland
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. file — a tool
  7. track — a path
  8. net — after costs
  9. field — for sport
  10. chip — in a computer
  11. track — a song
  12. ground — a position
  13. fine — high quality
  14. ground — crushed
  15. cold — an illness
  16. fine — a penalty
  17. chip — for betting
  18. track — to keep track
  19. cold — not warm
  20. field — a subject
  21. file — a document
  22. net — for catching
  23. net — in sport
  24. file — a line of people

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