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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. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  19. Did you ________________ the meat?
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — a practice
  2. field — farmland
  3. bowl — a football final
  4. tear — from crying
  5. season — of the year
  6. land — to come down
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. land — ground
  9. tear — from crying
  10. land — a country
  11. bowl — to roll
  12. field — a subject
  13. drill — the tool
  14. tear — to rip
  15. cold — not warm
  16. cold — an illness
  17. net — for catching
  18. net — after costs
  19. season — to add flavour
  20. drill — army training
  21. field — for sport
  22. season — in sport
  23. net — in sport
  24. bowl — a dish

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