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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. There's no middle ________________.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  10. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  18. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. wound — an injury
  4. band — a music group
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. field — farmland
  7. ground — a position
  8. chair — a leader
  9. staff — employees
  10. pit — a fruit stone
  11. wound — an injury
  12. pit — a hole
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. cold — an illness
  15. staff — employees
  16. cold — not warm
  17. staff — a stick
  18. ground — crushed
  19. band — a ring
  20. pit — in a race
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. ground — the earth
  23. field — for sport
  24. cold — the Cold War

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