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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  5. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  8. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  15. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  16. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. mine — for digging
  3. field — for sport
  4. leaves — lets stay
  5. track — a song
  6. row — to paddle
  7. row — a line
  8. track — to keep track
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. squash — the vegetable
  11. squash — to crush
  12. scale — in music
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. leaves — of a tree
  15. leaves — to go away
  16. scale — for weighing
  17. cold — not warm
  18. field — a subject
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. scale — size or range
  21. field — farmland
  22. cold — an illness
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. track — a path

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