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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: game · bore · clip · season · file · field · bulb · cold

  1. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  8. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  9. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  10. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. The light ________________ burned out.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. I've got to change the light ________________.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. file — a line of people
  3. file — a document
  4. field — for sport
  5. clip — a video
  6. field — a subject
  7. bore — gave birth
  8. season — in sport
  9. bore — to tire
  10. bore — to drill
  11. field — farmland
  12. file — a tool
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. bulb — for light
  15. cold — an illness
  16. bulb — of a plant
  17. clip — to cut
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. cold — not warm
  20. clip — for paper
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. bulb — for light
  23. game — a match
  24. game — wild animals

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