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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: plane · cold · rule · hand · squash · last · field · chest

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  8. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  9. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. The ________________ took off on time.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. squash — to crush
  3. field — a subject
  4. field — for sport
  5. last — to go on
  6. field — farmland
  7. plane — a tool
  8. rule — government
  9. plane — in geometry
  10. hand — in cards
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. chest — a box
  14. squash — the sport
  15. chest — of your body
  16. cold — an illness
  17. last — finally
  18. hand — help
  19. plane — an aircraft
  20. chest — of your body
  21. rule — to rule out
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. rule — a law
  24. cold — not warm

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