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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. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  3. When was this ________________ built?
  4. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  5. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  6. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  7. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  8. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. lie — an untruth
  3. temple — a place of worship
  4. current — happening now
  5. temple — a place of worship
  6. lie — an untruth
  7. current — of water
  8. lie — to recline
  9. scale — size or range
  10. field — for sport
  11. cold — an illness
  12. last — final
  13. scale — in music
  14. net — after costs
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. temple — side of the head
  17. last — to go on
  18. net — for catching
  19. field — farmland
  20. last — finally
  21. cold — not warm
  22. current — electric
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. field — a subject

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