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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  4. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  9. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. The ________________ went through the wall.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. cold — an illness
  3. cap — a hat
  4. spell — a short time
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. field — for sport
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cap — of ice
  9. nail — on a finger
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. bark — to shout
  12. spell — magic
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. cell — a phone
  15. field — farmland
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. nail — for a hammer
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. cell — in biology
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. cap — a lid
  24. spell — letters

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