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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. David sat on the ________________.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. That must've been a ________________.
  16. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  17. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  20. False peace will not ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. field — farmland
  4. cold — an illness
  5. swing — music
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. rush — hurry
  8. wind — moving air
  9. swing — in golf
  10. row — to paddle
  11. row — a line
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. field — a subject
  14. last — finally
  15. rush — a thrill
  16. present — the time now
  17. present — there
  18. field — for sport
  19. present — a gift
  20. last — to go on
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — not warm
  23. last — final
  24. wind — moving air

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