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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 124 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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. David sat on the ________________.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  11. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. When will it ________________ you to start?
  14. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  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. march — the month
  2. swing — to play on
  3. hand — help
  4. march — music
  5. cold — an illness
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. swing — music
  8. swing — in golf
  9. file — a line of people
  10. suit — in cards
  11. suit — clothes
  12. field — a subject
  13. suit — to fit
  14. root — the cause
  15. field — farmland
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. hand — in cards
  18. root — of a word
  19. cold — not warm
  20. file — a tool
  21. march — the month
  22. root — of a plant
  23. file — a document
  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