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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. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  6. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  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. cell — a phone
  2. field — for sport
  3. field — farmland
  4. field — a subject
  5. cell — in biology
  6. stick — a piece of wood
  7. land — a country
  8. cold — an illness
  9. land — ground
  10. rest — what's left
  11. prune — to trim
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. stick — to attach or keep to
  15. prune — to trim
  16. rest — a break
  17. squash — to crush
  18. rest — what's left
  19. land — to come down
  20. squash — the sport
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. cold — not warm
  23. cell — in a prison
  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