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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  17. Have you found your soul ________________?
  18. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  19. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. You don't need to ________________ round.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. game — wild animals
  3. field — a subject
  4. tear — from crying
  5. pop — music
  6. game — a match
  7. cold — an illness
  8. sharp — clever
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. tear — to rip
  11. pop — soda
  12. mate — to breed
  13. cold — not warm
  14. field — farmland
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. craft — a handicraft
  17. mate — a partner
  18. mate — a friend
  19. craft — boats
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. pop — to visit
  22. tear — from crying
  23. craft — a skill
  24. field — for sport

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