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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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. Where did you ________________ them?
  4. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  5. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The ________________ took off on time.
  15. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  21. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  24. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. mug — to rob
  4. mug — a cup
  5. can — to be able to
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. field — for sport
  8. field — farmland
  9. plane — a tool
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. cold — an illness
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. shower — to wash
  14. plane — an aircraft
  15. can — a tin
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. scale — size or range
  18. field — a subject
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. mug — a face
  21. can — a tin
  22. shower — rain
  23. scale — in music
  24. plane — in geometry

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