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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  5. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  8. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  24. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. cold — not warm
  4. pit — a fruit stone
  5. pit — a hole
  6. field — a subject
  7. stem — to come from
  8. stem — of a plant
  9. band — a music group
  10. band — a ring
  11. cold — an illness
  12. chest — of your body
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. pit — in a race
  16. chest — a box
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. chest — of your body
  21. field — farmland
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. bark — a dog's sound
  24. bark — to shout

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