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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. There's no middle ________________.
  2. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. This piece is in a major ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  16. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  24. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. foot — a measure
  3. prune — to trim
  4. key — in music
  5. cell — a phone
  6. ground — crushed
  7. foot — part of the body
  8. field — for sport
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. field — a subject
  11. cold — not warm
  12. ground — the earth
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. key — the most important part
  16. key — for a lock
  17. kid — child
  18. cell — in biology
  19. cold — an illness
  20. kid — to tease
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. field — farmland
  23. prune — to trim
  24. foot — the bottom

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