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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  5. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  6. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  7. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  24. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. field — a subject
  3. cold — not warm
  4. wake — to stop sleeping
  5. bass — low music
  6. wake — a trail
  7. vault — an arched ceiling
  8. clip — for paper
  9. court — of a king
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. field — farmland
  12. court — of law
  13. stock — goods
  14. stock — shares
  15. bass — the fish
  16. clip — a video
  17. bass — the instrument
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. clip — to cut
  20. cold — an illness
  21. vault — in gymnastics
  22. court — for sport
  23. stock — a soup base
  24. vault — a safe

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