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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. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  15. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  23. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  24. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sports field
  2. land — a country
  3. swing — music
  4. land — ground
  5. field — farmland
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. bat — the animal
  8. swing — to play on
  9. cold — not warm
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. field — a subject
  13. cold — an illness
  14. pitch — a sales talk
  15. swing — in golf
  16. bark — to shout
  17. land — to come down
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. field — for sport
  22. fan — to cool the air
  23. bark — a dog's sound
  24. pitch — completely

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