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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 didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. spell — a short time
  3. court — of a king
  4. spell — letters
  5. field — a subject
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. wake — a trail
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cap — of ice
  11. court — for sport
  12. tube — the underground
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. field — farmland
  15. cap — a lid
  16. spell — magic
  17. court — of law
  18. tube — in a tire
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. tube — a container
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. cap — a hat
  23. cold — an illness
  24. field — for sport

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