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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.

Words on the sheet
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Word bank
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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. Have you met the new head ________________?
  5. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  6. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. The ________________ market has crashed.
  22. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. cold — an illness
  3. cell — a phone
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. squash — the vegetable
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. field — a subject
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. squash — to crush
  10. content — the amount
  11. content — happy
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. march — the month
  15. field — farmland
  16. cold — not warm
  17. march — music
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. cell — in biology
  20. field — for sport
  21. stock — shares
  22. stock — a soup base
  23. march — the month
  24. stock — goods

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