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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 120 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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  12. He is an ace ________________.
  13. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  23. Did you ________________ the button?
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. wind — moving air
  4. wind — moving air
  5. chest — of your body
  6. cell — a phone
  7. mine — for digging
  8. chest — of your body
  9. kick — in football
  10. chest — a box
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. pitcher — in baseball
  13. press — newspapers
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. field — for sport
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. cell — in biology
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. press — a publisher
  23. press — to push
  24. field — farmland

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