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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. We're almost out of ________________.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  5. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  21. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — soda
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. pop — to visit
  4. scale — for weighing
  5. foot — a measure
  6. land — a country
  7. scale — size or range
  8. field — for sport
  9. scale — in music
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. swing — to play on
  13. cold — not warm
  14. swing — music
  15. land — to come down
  16. swing — in golf
  17. cold — an illness
  18. field — farmland
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. pop — music
  21. foot — the bottom
  22. land — ground
  23. foot — part of the body
  24. field — a subject

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