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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. This piece is in a major ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  20. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. squash — to crush
  4. net — for catching
  5. net — after costs
  6. squash — the sport
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cold — not warm
  9. field — a subject
  10. net — in sport
  11. mine — for digging
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. key — in music
  14. field — for sport
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. field — farmland
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. key — for a lock
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. bat — the animal
  23. key — the most important part
  24. bat — for baseball

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