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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 116 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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. I can't ________________ this cold.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  24. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. hand — in cards
  3. cold — an illness
  4. kid — child
  5. field — a subject
  6. lean — thin
  7. last — to go on
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. stand — to bear
  10. kid — to tease
  11. cold — not warm
  12. stand — for spectators
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. field — farmland
  15. field — for sport
  16. stand — on your feet
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. net — for catching
  19. last — finally
  20. net — after costs
  21. net — in sport
  22. last — final
  23. lean — to rest against
  24. lean — to bend

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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