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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. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  2. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  18. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. bear — to put up with
  2. snap — to speak sharply
  3. snap — to click
  4. field — farmland
  5. chest — a box
  6. chest — of your body
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. wind — moving air
  10. cold — an illness
  11. bear — the animal
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. field — for sport
  17. bear — the animal
  18. chair — a leader
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. fork — in a road
  21. field — a subject
  22. cold — not warm
  23. wind — moving air
  24. chest — of your body

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