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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: toast · foot · clip · fall · game · race · field · stem

  1. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  5. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  6. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  7. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. foot — part of the body
  3. race — the arms race
  4. toast — a drink to someone
  5. stem — a stem cell
  6. fall — to drop
  7. foot — the bottom
  8. game — a match
  9. toast — bread
  10. field — for sport
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. fall — the season
  13. clip — a video
  14. clip — for paper
  15. foot — a measure
  16. field — a subject
  17. stem — of a plant
  18. race — humankind
  19. stem — to come from
  20. field — farmland
  21. game — wild animals
  22. fall — to drop
  23. clip — to cut
  24. toast — the most admired

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