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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  8. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  12. I can't ________________ this cold.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. Did you ________________ the meat?
  21. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. field — a subject
  3. field — farmland
  4. spell — letters
  5. cold — not warm
  6. wound — an injury
  7. stand — on your feet
  8. stem — of a plant
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. stem — a stem cell
  12. stand — to bear
  13. spell — magic
  14. spell — a short time
  15. field — for sport
  16. stand — for spectators
  17. wound — an injury
  18. season — of the year
  19. degree — from a university
  20. season — to add flavour
  21. stem — to come from
  22. degree — an amount
  23. degree — temperature
  24. season — in 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