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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. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  2. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  5. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. racket — a loud noise
  2. stick — a piece of wood
  3. drill — army training
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. file — a document
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. drill — a practice
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. field — farmland
  10. stick — to attach or keep to
  11. file — a line of people
  12. cell — a phone
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. stick — a piece of wood
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. file — a tool
  17. drill — the tool
  18. racket — for tennis
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cold — an illness
  21. field — a subject
  22. field — for sport
  23. cell — in biology
  24. cell — in a prison

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