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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: field · march · date · cold · race · content · calf · game

  1. Have you settled on a ________________?
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  5. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. date — on the calendar
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. game — a match
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. calf — of the leg
  6. race — the arms race
  7. race — humankind
  8. cold — not warm
  9. calf — a young animal
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. march — the month
  12. cold — an illness
  13. calf — a young animal
  14. game — wild animals
  15. field — farmland
  16. race — a contest
  17. content — happy
  18. field — for sport
  19. field — a subject
  20. content — the amount
  21. march — music
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. date — the fruit
  24. march — the month

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