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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The ________________ took off on time.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  19. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  22. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. field — a subject
  3. trunk — of a tree
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. field — for sport
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. cold — an illness
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. cold — not warm
  10. plane — an aircraft
  11. field — farmland
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. fork — in a road
  14. game — a match
  15. patient — calm and waiting
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. game — wild animals
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. plane — in geometry
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. trunk — of an elephant
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. plane — a tool

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