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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 stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  5. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  15. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. wound — an injury
  3. land — a country
  4. trunk — of a tree
  5. foot — a measure
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. file — a document
  8. land — ground
  9. cold — not warm
  10. file — a tool
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. foot — part of the body
  13. wound — an injury
  14. foot — the bottom
  15. trunk — of a car
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cold — an illness
  18. lash — a whip stroke
  19. field — a subject
  20. lash — to lash out
  21. field — farmland
  22. lash — an eyelash
  23. file — a line of people
  24. land — to come down

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