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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. spring — of water
  4. game — a match
  5. court — for sport
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. spell — a short time
  8. court — of a king
  9. cold — not warm
  10. spring — the season
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. shower — to wash
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. spring — a coil
  16. field — for sport
  17. spell — letters
  18. court — of law
  19. spell — magic
  20. field — farmland
  21. patient — calm and waiting
  22. cold — an illness
  23. shower — rain
  24. game — wild animals

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