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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 116 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: court · season · chair · last · march · field · saw · stock

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. Did you ________________ the meat?
  10. He works in a ________________ mill.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  21. She's very handy with a ________________.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. court — for sport
  3. stock — goods
  4. field — a subject
  5. last — final
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. chair — a leader
  8. last — to go on
  9. season — to add flavour
  10. saw — the tool
  11. march — music
  12. court — of a king
  13. field — for sport
  14. season — of the year
  15. court — of law
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. stock — shares
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. march — the month
  20. season — in sport
  21. saw — the tool
  22. march — the month
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. last — finally

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