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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 116 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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  7. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  8. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  9. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  21. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  22. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  23. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  24. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. field — for sport
  3. deal — an agreement
  4. snap — to click
  5. cold — not warm
  6. branch — a division
  7. dip — to dunk
  8. dip — to sink
  9. drill — army training
  10. game — a match
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. field — a subject
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. drill — the tool
  17. game — wild animals
  18. branch — of a tree
  19. cold — an illness
  20. drill — a practice
  21. deal — a big deal
  22. deal — to handle
  23. branch — of a bank
  24. dip — a sauce

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