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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 116 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's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  10. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  11. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  12. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  20. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. sharp — clever
  3. chair — a leader
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. cold — an illness
  6. field — farmland
  7. clip — to cut
  8. drill — a practice
  9. bank — for money
  10. bank — for money
  11. chair — to sit on
  12. present — there
  13. cold — not warm
  14. clip — for paper
  15. bank — of a river
  16. clip — a video
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. sharp — with an edge
  20. present — a gift
  21. drill — the tool
  22. drill — army training
  23. present — the time now
  24. field — for sport

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