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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  4. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. stem — to come from
  3. jam — to spread on bread
  4. current — of water
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. file — a line of people
  7. game — a match
  8. game — wild animals
  9. wound — an injury
  10. file — a document
  11. current — happening now
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. jam — in traffic
  14. file — a tool
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. current — electric
  17. field — for sport
  18. hand — help
  19. hand — in cards
  20. field — a subject
  21. jam — a tight spot
  22. wound — an injury
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. hand — part of the 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