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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 120 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. The water is too ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. field — a subject
  3. leaves — of a tree
  4. game — wild animals
  5. field — farmland
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. field — for sport
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. land — to come down
  10. land — ground
  11. leaves — to go away
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. foot — part of the body
  14. cold — an illness
  15. leaves — lets stay
  16. last — finally
  17. last — to go on
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. last — final
  21. foot — the bottom
  22. land — a country
  23. foot — a measure
  24. game — a match

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