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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. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  12. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  13. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  14. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  20. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. field — for sport
  3. rash — hasty
  4. current — of water
  5. cold — not warm
  6. bore — gave birth
  7. cold — an illness
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. bore — to tire
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. bore — to drill
  12. rash — a series
  13. hide — animal skin
  14. hide — to keep secret
  15. field — farmland
  16. spell — magic
  17. current — happening now
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. hide — to keep secret
  20. current — electric
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. spell — a short time
  23. field — a subject
  24. bat — the animal

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