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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 120 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: straw · row · cold · ground · field · foot · sharp · fork

  1. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  22. There's no middle ________________.
  23. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  24. It's one o'clock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. foot — a measure
  3. cold — not warm
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. foot — part of the body
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. fork — to eat with
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. field — farmland
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. cold — an illness
  13. fork — in a road
  14. field — for sport
  15. foot — the bottom
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. row — a line
  18. row — to paddle
  19. sharp — clever
  20. ground — the earth
  21. fork — a garden tool
  22. ground — a position
  23. ground — crushed
  24. sharp — exactly

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