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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. She's very handy with a ________________.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. He works in a ________________ mill.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. The ________________ went through the wall.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. land — ground
  3. saw — the tool
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. field — farmland
  6. cold — not warm
  7. mine — for digging
  8. clip — to cut
  9. land — to come down
  10. band — a music group
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. nail — on a finger
  14. field — a subject
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. clip — for paper
  17. clip — a video
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. nail — for a hammer
  20. land — a country
  21. band — a ring
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. cold — an illness
  24. field — for sport

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