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

Word bank: ground · toast · chest · field · stick · mark · cold · clip

  1. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  19. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  20. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. stick — a piece of wood
  2. ground — crushed
  3. ground — a position
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. clip — for paper
  6. clip — a video
  7. stick — a piece of wood
  8. field — for sport
  9. toast — a drink to someone
  10. chest — of your body
  11. clip — to cut
  12. toast — bread
  13. cold — not warm
  14. mark — a grade
  15. field — a subject
  16. chest — a box
  17. ground — the earth
  18. toast — the most admired
  19. mark — a trace
  20. mark — to pay attention
  21. field — farmland
  22. cold — an illness
  23. stick — to attach or keep to
  24. chest — of your body

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