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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 ball is in your ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  12. Did you ________________ the meat?
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  15. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. field — a subject
  3. pound — to hit hard
  4. stock — shares
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. cold — an illness
  7. current — electric
  8. field — farmland
  9. field — for sport
  10. land — to come down
  11. season — in sport
  12. season — to add flavour
  13. cold — not warm
  14. pound — a weight
  15. current — of water
  16. stock — goods
  17. pound — for dogs
  18. court — of law
  19. land — a country
  20. current — happening now
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. land — ground
  23. season — of the year
  24. court — of a king

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