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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: field · pit · cold · bat · cell · toast · bowl · file

  1. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  4. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  15. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. toast — the most admired
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. pit — a fruit stone
  4. toast — bread
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. bowl — to roll
  7. file — a line of people
  8. bat — the animal
  9. file — a document
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. pit — a hole
  12. field — farmland
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. toast — a drink to someone
  15. pit — in a race
  16. field — a subject
  17. bowl — a dish
  18. cold — an illness
  19. file — a tool
  20. field — for sport
  21. bowl — a football final
  22. cell — in biology
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cell — a phone

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