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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  4. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  5. That must've been a ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  14. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  17. The light ________________ burned out.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. I've got to change the light ________________.
  21. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  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. cold — not warm
  2. file — a tool
  3. bulb — of a plant
  4. rush — hurry
  5. rush — a thrill
  6. cold — an illness
  7. field — farmland
  8. bank — for money
  9. content — the amount
  10. field — a subject
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. file — a line of people
  13. root — the cause
  14. bank — of a river
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. bank — for money
  17. bulb — for light
  18. file — a document
  19. root — of a plant
  20. bulb — for light
  21. rush — to hurry
  22. content — happy
  23. root — of a word
  24. field — for sport

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