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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: race · hand · wound · field · pop · stand · cold · chip

  1. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  5. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  20. You don't need to ________________ round.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. I can't ________________ this cold.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — past of 'wind'
  2. race — a contest
  3. field — a subject
  4. stand — on your feet
  5. pop — music
  6. cold — an illness
  7. field — for sport
  8. field — farmland
  9. hand — help
  10. cold — not warm
  11. race — the arms race
  12. stand — for spectators
  13. wound — an injury
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. pop — soda
  16. chip — in a computer
  17. hand — in cards
  18. race — humankind
  19. chip — for betting
  20. pop — to visit
  21. wound — an injury
  22. stand — to bear
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. chip — to eat

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