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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: mate · wound · cold · current · game · field

  1. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  16. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  17. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. game — wild animals
  5. cold — an illness
  6. wound — an injury
  7. field — a subject
  8. wound — an injury
  9. field — for sport
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. current — happening now
  12. field — farmland
  13. mate — to breed
  14. game — a match
  15. mate — a friend
  16. current — of water
  17. current — electric
  18. 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