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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 120 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. The water is too ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  24. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. spring — a coil
  3. field — farmland
  4. leaves — lets stay
  5. field — for sport
  6. staff — employees
  7. cell — a phone
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. cold — an illness
  10. leaves — to go away
  11. spring — the season
  12. lean — to bend
  13. last — final
  14. lean — thin
  15. last — to go on
  16. cell — in biology
  17. field — a subject
  18. spring — of water
  19. leaves — of a tree
  20. last — finally
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. staff — a stick
  23. lean — to rest against
  24. staff — employees

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