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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. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. That was ________________ to happen.
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  23. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  24. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. cold — not warm
  4. land — to come down
  5. march — the month
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. mine — for digging
  8. last — finally
  9. field — for sport
  10. march — the month
  11. field — farmland
  12. land — ground
  13. last — to go on
  14. bound — tied together
  15. field — a subject
  16. march — music
  17. land — a country
  18. bound — certain
  19. cap — a hat
  20. cap — a lid
  21. cold — an illness
  22. cap — of ice
  23. bound — obliged
  24. last — final

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