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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Where did you ________________ them?
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. bark — to shout
  3. march — the month
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. field — for sport
  6. land — to come down
  7. march — the month
  8. mug — a cup
  9. kid — to tease
  10. chest — a box
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. mug — to rob
  14. field — a subject
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. cold — not warm
  17. land — ground
  18. chest — of your body
  19. chest — of your body
  20. cold — an illness
  21. mug — a face
  22. land — a country
  23. kid — child
  24. march — music

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