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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. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  12. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  17. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. pound — for dogs
  3. field — for sport
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. club — a group
  6. field — a subject
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. pound — a weight
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. game — wild animals
  11. staff — employees
  12. club — for golf
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. field — farmland
  15. cold — an illness
  16. chair — a leader
  17. staff — a stick
  18. game — a match
  19. cell — a phone
  20. cold — not warm
  21. staff — employees
  22. cell — in biology
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. cell — in a prison

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