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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. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  16. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. We're almost out of ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. You don't need to ________________ round.
  24. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a hole
  2. spell — letters
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. field — farmland
  5. spell — a short time
  6. cold — not warm
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. game — wild animals
  9. trunk — of an elephant
  10. mate — a partner
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. pop — music
  13. mate — a friend
  14. cold — an illness
  15. mate — to breed
  16. pit — a fruit stone
  17. spell — magic
  18. game — a match
  19. field — for sport
  20. pop — soda
  21. field — a subject
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. pop — to visit
  24. pit — in a race

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