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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. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. Have you found your soul ________________?
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. The ball is in your ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. court — of law
  3. field — farmland
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. court — of a king
  6. prune — to trim
  7. field — a subject
  8. cold — not warm
  9. staff — employees
  10. file — a line of people
  11. staff — employees
  12. mate — to breed
  13. field — for sport
  14. mate — a partner
  15. tear — to rip
  16. prune — to trim
  17. court — for sport
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. tear — from crying
  20. file — a tool
  21. tear — from crying
  22. cold — an illness
  23. staff — a stick
  24. file — a document

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