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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  8. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  14. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  15. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  16. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. lie — an untruth
  3. field — a subject
  4. craft — boats
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. court — of a king
  7. craft — a skill
  8. can — a tin
  9. bark — to shout
  10. cold — not warm
  11. swing — in golf
  12. field — for sport
  13. craft — a handicraft
  14. can — a tin
  15. lie — to recline
  16. bark — of a tree
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. can — to be able to
  19. swing — music
  20. lie — an untruth
  21. cold — an illness
  22. field — farmland
  23. court — of law
  24. swing — to play on

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