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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  3. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  4. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. When was this ________________ built?
  22. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. racket — for tennis
  3. cap — a hat
  4. fan — to cool the air
  5. field — farmland
  6. cap — of ice
  7. clip — for paper
  8. wind — moving air
  9. cold — not warm
  10. clip — a video
  11. temple — side of the head
  12. cap — a lid
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. racket — for tennis
  15. wind — moving air
  16. temple — a place of worship
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. cold — an illness
  20. clip — to cut
  21. temple — a place of worship
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. field — a subject
  24. racket — a loud noise

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