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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. Have you met the new head ________________?
  2. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  20. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — a trainer
  2. current — happening now
  3. cold — an illness
  4. field — a subject
  5. current — electric
  6. tear — from crying
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cell — in biology
  9. coach — pulled by horses
  10. land — to come down
  11. land — ground
  12. current — of water
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. tear — to rip
  15. cell — a phone
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. tear — from crying
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. fork — in a road
  20. fork — a garden tool
  21. field — for sport
  22. field — farmland
  23. land — a country
  24. coach — a trainer

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