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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 water is too ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  14. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  15. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  20. That must've been a ________________.
  21. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. field — farmland
  3. pit — in a race
  4. drill — the tool
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. field — a subject
  7. track — to keep track
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. rush — hurry
  10. court — of a king
  11. mine — for digging
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. rush — to hurry
  14. track — a song
  15. pit — a hole
  16. drill — a practice
  17. pit — a fruit stone
  18. court — for sport
  19. track — a path
  20. rush — a thrill
  21. drill — army training
  22. field — for sport
  23. court — of law
  24. cold — an illness

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