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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. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  5. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  13. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  22. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — to crush
  2. squash — the sport
  3. drill — a practice
  4. present — there
  5. club — for dancing
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. cold — an illness
  8. present — a gift
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. present — the time now
  11. hand — help
  12. club — a group
  13. squash — the vegetable
  14. field — a subject
  15. cold — not warm
  16. hand — in cards
  17. field — farmland
  18. field — for sport
  19. land — to come down
  20. land — ground
  21. drill — the tool
  22. club — for golf
  23. land — a country
  24. drill — army training

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