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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 120 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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  12. When was this ________________ built?
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  23. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  24. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. field — farmland
  3. field — a subject
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. temple — side of the head
  6. cold — an illness
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. temple — a place of worship
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. chair — to sit on
  12. temple — a place of worship
  13. wound — an injury
  14. spring — the season
  15. lie — to recline
  16. spring — of water
  17. chip — for betting
  18. spring — a coil
  19. field — for sport
  20. lie — an untruth
  21. chair — a leader
  22. lie — an untruth
  23. chip — in a computer
  24. chip — to eat

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