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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  3. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  4. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  7. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. This piece is in a major ________________.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. staff — employees
  3. key — the most important part
  4. staff — employees
  5. field — farmland
  6. mate — to breed
  7. staff — a stick
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. key — in music
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. key — for a lock
  12. march — music
  13. mate — a friend
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. stem — to come from
  16. cold — an illness
  17. field — for sport
  18. field — a subject
  19. stem — a stem cell
  20. bark — to shout
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. march — the month
  23. march — the month
  24. cold — not warm

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