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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. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  11. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  12. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  16. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  21. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. Can you turn the ________________ on?

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. field — farmland
  3. rest — a break
  4. file — a line of people
  5. file — a document
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. file — a tool
  8. field — a subject
  9. spring — of water
  10. pitch — a sports field
  11. pitch — a sales talk
  12. rest — what's left
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. spring — the season
  15. pitch — completely
  16. mouse — for a computer
  17. spring — a coil
  18. mouse — the animal
  19. game — wild animals
  20. rest — what's left
  21. mouse — the animal
  22. field — for sport
  23. game — a match
  24. fan — to cool the air

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