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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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. spring — the season
  3. last — to go on
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. squash — the vegetable
  6. kid — to tease
  7. shower — rain
  8. squash — to crush
  9. field — for sport
  10. cap — a lid
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. squash — the sport
  13. kid — child
  14. field — a subject
  15. last — final
  16. cap — of ice
  17. cap — a hat
  18. field — farmland
  19. spring — of water
  20. shower — to wash
  21. chair — a leader
  22. spring — a coil
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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