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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. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  6. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.

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

Answer key

  1. track — to keep track
  2. tear — from crying
  3. tear — from crying
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. pit — a hole
  6. pit — a fruit stone
  7. cold — not warm
  8. prune — to trim
  9. prune — to trim
  10. field — a subject
  11. prune — the fruit
  12. mine — for digging
  13. cold — an illness
  14. march — the month
  15. field — for sport
  16. field — farmland
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. track — a song
  19. tear — to rip
  20. march — music
  21. pit — in a race
  22. march — the month
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. track — a path

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