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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. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. We're almost out of ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  11. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  12. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Did you ________________ the meat?

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. pop — soda
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. chest — a box
  5. hand — help
  6. hand — in cards
  7. field — a subject
  8. pop — to visit
  9. cold — not warm
  10. dip — a sauce
  11. season — in sport
  12. net — after costs
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. chest — of your body
  15. dip — to sink
  16. net — in sport
  17. chest — of your body
  18. pop — music
  19. field — farmland
  20. dip — to dunk
  21. net — for catching
  22. cold — an illness
  23. field — for sport
  24. season — to add flavour

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