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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. The ________________ went through the wall.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  16. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  17. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. mine — for digging
  3. sharp — with an edge
  4. field — farmland
  5. field — for sport
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. bat — the animal
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. fan — to cool the air
  11. perch — the fish
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. sharp — clever
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. nail — on a finger
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. field — a subject
  24. cold — not warm

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