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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 players ran onto the football ________________.
  2. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  3. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  21. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sports field
  2. pitch — completely
  3. wave — with your hand
  4. field — a subject
  5. file — a line of people
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. field — for sport
  8. wind — moving air
  9. rest — what's left
  10. spring — the season
  11. wind — moving air
  12. cold — not warm
  13. spring — a coil
  14. cold — an illness
  15. wave — a sudden rise
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. spring — of water
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. file — a tool
  20. rest — what's left
  21. wave — of the sea
  22. field — farmland
  23. rest — a break
  24. file — a document

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