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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: chair · game · race · bulb · pitcher · cold · ground · field

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. He is an ace ________________.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. I've got to change the light ________________.
  21. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  22. There's no middle ________________.
  23. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  24. The light ________________ burned out.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. race — a contest
  3. ground — the earth
  4. game — a match
  5. field — for sport
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cold — not warm
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. ground — crushed
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. pitcher — in baseball
  13. chair — a leader
  14. field — farmland
  15. race — the arms race
  16. game — wild animals
  17. race — humankind
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. field — a subject
  20. bulb — for light
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. ground — a position
  23. bulb — of a plant
  24. bulb — for light

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