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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 like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. He is as ________________ as a wolf.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — bread
  2. track — to keep track
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. lean — to rest against
  5. field — a subject
  6. file — a line of people
  7. cold — an illness
  8. lean — to bend
  9. field — farmland
  10. track — a song
  11. field — for sport
  12. track — a path
  13. land — a country
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. cold — not warm
  16. land — ground
  17. toast — a drink to someone
  18. file — a tool
  19. land — to come down
  20. fork — in a road
  21. file — a document
  22. toast — the most admired
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. lean — thin

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