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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. When was this ________________ built?
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  13. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. file — a document
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. bat — the animal
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. field — farmland
  9. cold — not warm
  10. row — to paddle
  11. content — the amount
  12. temple — a place of worship
  13. temple — side of the head
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. field — for sport
  16. fan — to cool the air
  17. file — a line of people
  18. cold — an illness
  19. content — happy
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. row — a line
  22. file — a tool
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. cold — the Cold War

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