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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 felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. There's no middle ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. stem — to come from
  3. band — a ring
  4. rule — to rule out
  5. field — farmland
  6. ground — crushed
  7. sharp — clever
  8. field — a subject
  9. band — a music group
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. sharp — with an edge
  12. march — the month
  13. ground — a position
  14. field — for sport
  15. chest — of your body
  16. march — music
  17. rule — a law
  18. chest — a box
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. rule — government
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. ground — the earth
  24. march — the month

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