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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 116 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. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  14. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  20. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. field — farmland
  3. wound — an injury
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. clip — for paper
  8. object — to protest
  9. mine — for digging
  10. clip — a video
  11. field — a subject
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. cap — of ice
  14. object — an aim
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. clip — to cut
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. cap — a lid
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. wound — an injury
  23. object — a thing
  24. field — for sport

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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