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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. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  2. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  5. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  12. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pass — to succeed
  2. pass — a permit
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. wake — before a funeral
  5. snap — to speak sharply
  6. field — for sport
  7. capital — a city
  8. wake — a trail
  9. pass — to spend time
  10. capital — money
  11. snap — to snap out of it
  12. drill — army training
  13. field — farmland
  14. lash — to lash out
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. drill — a practice
  17. snap — to click
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. field — a subject
  20. cold — an illness
  21. lash — an eyelash
  22. drill — the tool
  23. cold — not warm
  24. lash — a whip stroke

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