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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. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  2. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. pitch — a sports field
  3. land — a country
  4. land — to come down
  5. field — a subject
  6. land — ground
  7. cold — an illness
  8. stick — a piece of wood
  9. capital — money
  10. fall — to drop
  11. fall — to drop
  12. capital — a city
  13. stick — to attach or keep to
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. field — for sport
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. field — farmland
  19. fall — the season
  20. cold — not warm
  21. pitch — completely
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. sharp — clever
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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