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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: march · bark · cell · fan · rash · game · sharp · field

  1. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. Don't do anything ________________.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. march — the month
  4. field — farmland
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. cell — in biology
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. cell — a phone
  13. field — for sport
  14. march — the month
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. rash — hasty
  17. game — wild animals
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. game — a match
  20. rash — on the skin
  21. march — music
  22. rash — a series
  23. field — a subject
  24. bark — to shout

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