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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. When was this ________________ built?
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  10. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  18. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  19. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Did you ________________ the button?
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. field — farmland
  3. tear — from crying
  4. drill — a practice
  5. mine — for digging
  6. tear — from crying
  7. cold — not warm
  8. field — for sport
  9. current — electric
  10. current — happening now
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. field — a subject
  13. temple — a place of worship
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. current — of water
  16. tear — to rip
  17. press — newspapers
  18. temple — side of the head
  19. press — a publisher
  20. drill — army training
  21. drill — the tool
  22. cold — an illness
  23. press — to push
  24. cold — the Cold War

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