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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. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  4. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  18. When was this ________________ built?
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. chair — a leader
  3. temple — a place of worship
  4. temple — side of the head
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. deal — an agreement
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. deal — a big deal
  9. field — for sport
  10. cold — an illness
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. squash — to crush
  13. chair — a professorship
  14. field — farmland
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. squash — the sport
  18. temple — a place of worship
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. deal — to handle
  21. cold — not warm
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. field — a subject
  24. mine — for digging

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