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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. This piece is in a major ________________.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  16. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. dip — a sauce
  3. file — a line of people
  4. key — the most important part
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. wake — before a funeral
  7. chair — a leader
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. dip — to sink
  11. field — for sport
  12. hand — help
  13. key — in music
  14. file — a document
  15. dip — to dunk
  16. key — for a lock
  17. field — a subject
  18. hand — in cards
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. file — a tool
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. band — a music group
  23. wake — a trail
  24. band — a ring

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