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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. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. spring — the season
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. field — for sport
  5. race — a contest
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. object — to protest
  8. rest — a break
  9. wound — an injury
  10. chair — a leader
  11. spring — a coil
  12. rest — what's left
  13. object — an aim
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. object — a thing
  16. rest — what's left
  17. race — humankind
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. race — the arms race
  20. bat — the animal
  21. wound — an injury
  22. spring — of water
  23. field — a subject
  24. field — farmland

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