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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. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  2. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  3. That was ________________ to happen.
  4. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — music
  2. swing — in golf
  3. bound — certain
  4. rule — a law
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. rule — to rule out
  7. cold — not warm
  8. field — for sport
  9. rule — government
  10. swing — to play on
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. bound — tied together
  13. drill — a practice
  14. mine — for digging
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. drill — the tool
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. bound — obliged
  19. cold — an illness
  20. field — farmland
  21. field — a subject
  22. bat — the animal
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. drill — army training

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