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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 · clip · rock · rule · kid · cold · date · rash

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  4. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Don't do anything ________________.
  9. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  10. Have you settled on a ________________?
  11. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  12. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  18. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. clip — a video
  3. rock — to move gently
  4. rash — on the skin
  5. cold — an illness
  6. kid — child
  7. clip — for paper
  8. rash — hasty
  9. rock — music
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. date — the fruit
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. rule — government
  15. cold — not warm
  16. clip — to cut
  17. rash — a series
  18. rule — a law
  19. field — a subject
  20. field — for sport
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. rock — a stone
  23. kid — to tease
  24. rule — to rule out

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