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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 had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. He works in a ________________ mill.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. She's very handy with a ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. saw — the tool
  4. chair — a leader
  5. prune — to trim
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. court — of law
  8. wind — moving air
  9. field — for sport
  10. court — for sport
  11. mine — for digging
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. wind — moving air
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. prune — to trim
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. field — farmland
  19. saw — the tool
  20. field — a subject
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. court — of a king
  24. cold — not warm

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